Seven Moments
by Galindaba
Summary: Still getting ready to leave for their honeymoon, James and Lily think over their relationship and how it has changed since their years at Hogwarts. There have been many defining moments in there relationship, some bigger than others... (Sequel to Five Minutes.) (Rated T for minor swearing, violence and reference to suggestive adult themes.)
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: The world and the main characters in this story are all provided by JK Rowlings wonderful Harry Potter series.**

**Hey people! So this is my sequel to my uber long James and Lily story, the one before it being Five Minutes (so check that out if you wanna read this one!). Before I get started though I just want to thank the people who have given me continued support and inspired me to continue writing my take on this story. I know there are lots of versions out there and just thanks for reading this one too! :)**

**So this, obviously, is the sequel which means I'll be referencing what I've written before in certain cases and building one what I've done already, (hopefully!). This story is a little bit harder to construct because for some unknown reason I've decided to plan myself a rather complicated plot so some sections are informative to whats going on there. It also means that this one will be taking me a little longer to write. Hopefully I can stick to my plan and get going so that update dates aren't too far apart but, writer block does happen sometimes and it may take a week or more for a couple updates but I shall try my hardest to keep you from waiting for the next chapter. I'm still at university for a couple more weeks so there will probably only be one (possibly two) updates within this time cause I have assessments due. Please be patient with that**

**Just gonna say again, I'm not great with spelling and grammar but I do try my hardest. Please don't get mad if I spell things wrong or use the wrong word or miss letters off or something. I apologise for that in advance.**

**So...yeah. I think that's it. Here you go! :)**

* * *

**Prologue**

James and Lily Potter were stood in their new home in Godrics Hollow at the bottom of the staircase. James was holding a suitcase of Lily's which was filled with only books and also just picked up a rather tattered old boot. The boot was smelly and brown with a hole in the toe. The bottom of the shoe was coming off and there were frayed laces that loosely tied into a bow behind the tongue. Inside, there was an insole with sweat stains on it as if hadn't been changed through its lifetime. To many people, this boot was garbage. It was a piece of rubbish which wasn't needed or useful and was unnecessarily cluttering up the house. But to James and Lily, this boot was exciting and adventurous for it was a port-key. An everyday object charmed to take them to a certain destination at a certain moment in time.

Most witches and wizards had very specific reasons for using port-keys. Either they couldn't apparate yet, there were no connections to the floo network at their destination or there was a large group of people heading out to the same location and it just made more sense. There were other ways of transportation of course; flying, the knight bus, trains and Ministry cars for those who could get a hold of them or were important enough to qualify for the use of them. But these modes of travel were long and tedious so most witches and wizards preferred the use of port-keys for a quick and easy journey.

For James and Lily, this wasn't particularly the case. Sure they would never have flown because Lily hated brooms, (James would have loved it). They wouldn't have used a train because after seven years riding one too and fro from Hogwarts, they kind of got a bit bored of them and of course they didn't qualify for ministry cars. Their new fireplace in their new home in Godrics Hollow hadn't been connected to the floo network yet either so the use of that was out of the question. Also, for this particular purpose, the knight bus would have been useless for them because, even though they knew they were travelling to their honeymoon destination, they quite simply had no idea where they were in fact going.

They hadn't originally planned a honeymoon, too concerned with the Order of the Phoenix to book one, or even think about where they would have liked to go. If they had booked anything, it would have been very last minute and who knew if they could even spare the time. It was their friends who had done this for them, knowing full well they wouldn't have thought to do it themselves. At their wedding, the day before, their friends had presented them with the boot as a present at the small gathering they had held after the ceremony. James and Lily were confused and, of course, sarcastic at first when the item was passed over to them, but when it was explained to them they were at a loss for words. It was one of the most thoughtful gifts they had been given as a couple.

They were told about everything but the location where the port-key would lead them too so, when they had arrived at their house that night, they had begun to pack, (stopping of course for the night). They carried on packing in the morning. James had finished within an hour and had packed for all weathers, having been told it might be necessary as Sirius was supposed to have checked the weather reports and had gotten confused whilst doing so. Lily had packed too but was far more indecisive than James and usually liked to start her packing days, or even weeks, before she needed to leave. Thanks to this, she had only actually been able to make a decision on which books she wanted to bring with her and what bag. She would have been able to pack clothes over the next few hours but the port-key was set to leave at a certain time and James had called her ten minutes previously telling her to hurry up. She went downstairs five minutes later, still not completely ready to leave. Not that it mattered too much as James had told her he would buy anything she needed for her whilst they were away.

'Where do you think we're going?' Lily asked James, 'Somewhere cultural?'

'Somewhere fun?' James counter-questioned.

'Somewhere exotic.' Lily hoped.

'Well,' James said, grabbing their remaining suitcases, 'Only one way to find out. Ready Evans?'

Lily smiled at her old name. 'Ready Potter.' she said, saying her new one.

They both grabbed onto the boot and waited with anticipation. Nothing happened. They were still three minutes or so early.

'Do you find this weird too?' Lily asked James as she suddenly realised how bizarre this would look to an outsider who had no idea what they were doing and why. They would just think that they were two crazy people wondering whether or not they should pack an old shoe.

'I find you weird.' James said with a wink.

'You married me.' Lily retorted, in a way that told him he couldn't use that against her anymore.

'I suppose.' James chuckled.

They stood in silence for a few seconds and Lily began thinking over the thoughts she had had in their bedroom, how their relationship had changed so drastically during Hogwarts. The ups and downs they had had in those years she had already gone over in her mind, trying to decide if she would change anything and she could truly say now that in their school years she wouldn't have. She had asked James upstairs when he thought their relationship had changed and he had told her honestly; the incident with Snape in their fifth year. She agreed with him. That was when things had started to develop. From then onwards she had begun to like him and then fall in love with him. She had pictured a future with him whilst at Hogwarts as well but she had never actually considered marrying him in those years. She hadn't expected to be twenty and married already. She had always thought that she would at least be thirty before she did anything this drastic to her life. And, just as she had upstairs, she had to wonder what had changed in her to make such a mature decision. And what had changed in James to make him ask such a question. What had happened to their relationship since they left Hogwarts that got them to where they were now?

'James?' Lily said with a questioning tone in her voice.

James looked at Lily and studied her face. 'There isn't enough time for you to go pack your other suitcase.' he said straight away with almost a warning look in his eyes as if he would be a little bit mad if she tried to go do so.

'Yeah I know. That wasn't what I was going to say.' Lily stated.

'Oh ok.' James shrugged, 'Then what?'

'How do you think our relationship has changed since Hogwarts.' she wondered.

'Didn't you ask me this already?' James frowned, 'I thought we dropped this subject upstairs.'

'Yeah I still thought over it.' Lily said, 'And you were right-'

'I always am.'

'-our relationship did change after that incident with Snape in fifth year, but that wasn't what I was on about.' Lily finished, ignoring James' interruption.

'Ok.' James began warily, 'Then what did you mean?'

'I meant,' Lily thought, trying to find the right way to word her sentence, 'like, after Hogwarts, what changed? Cause I never thought of being married to you back then.'

'Thanks.' James said sarcastically.

Lily ignored him again and went on. 'How did we get from us then to us now?'

James actually took her question seriously and thought about what she said. 'Ok, well, personally,' he started, 'I think there have been,' (he paused to do a quick tally in his head) 'seven defining moments which changed our relationship. Changed it to what we had at Hogwarts to what we have now.'

'Really?' Lily replied a little bit startled at how he could put a number to the changes.

'Yeah. Give or take.' James nodded, 'But we weren't always the ones to, you know…cause the change.'

'What do you mean?' Lily frowned, a little confused as to how something was able to change in their relationship without them instigating it themselves.

'Sirius and Remus were a big factor. We wouldn't be where we are now without them cause they were the ones to talk sense into me most the time.' James stated, 'Err…there's also Peter I suppose. Alice and Frank. Pretty big stuff happened cause of them I'd say and what happened with all of that. Hestia Jones before that. And Dumbledore changed us all up too…and, I guess, my mum and your parents as well.' he finished, looking at her in the eyes rather cautiously and hoping he hadn't upset her with what he had said, who he had mentioned.

But Lily didn't seem to be taking too much notice of him anymore and was instead, back into her own world. Reliving what had happened.

'Port-key's ready to go.' James said to no reply.

The port-key was set to take them to their secret location. There was a tugging behind the naval and they were swept of their feet and spinning around in transportation. And whilst they were whirring in the air to their honeymoon destination, Lily thought over what James had said. What it meant. How their relationship had grown and who had influenced them in those changes.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: If I wrote one of these at the beginning of my story do you think I can leave it as that or do I have to write one every time? Just wondering.**

**Okay! Chapter one here we go! :)**

* * *

**Chapter One**

James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew were sat around the dinner table in Remus Lupin's parent's house. James, Remus and Peter were just having a drink, a cup of tea for the former two and the latter was drinking an ice cold Butterbeer. Sirius was drinking a Butterbeer too but he was also scoffing down a sandwich because he had given his usual complaint of being hungry. He didn't really have time for it though. They were only having a short break after trying to sort through all of Remus' belongings to see what he would be taking with him to the Potter Mansion. He was going to be moving in the day after next and he wasn't fully packed yet. He was trying to determine what he actually used and needed nowadays, what he wanted to move into his new home, and, somehow, he had managed to convince his friends to help him.

The four of them had been at it for three or more hours now, having started at around eleven o'clock. (They were meant to arrive earlier to get a prompt start but James had struggled to get Sirius moving.) So far they had managed to sort through Remus' cupboard and all of his surface bric-a-brac such as his photos and posters and the little models he had of types of dragons. They had packed them all into boxes as well with their very own system; Remus passed James the stuff he wanted to take, James put it in the box, Sirius took it out the box, Remus took it off Sirius and handed it back to James, Sirius would try to take it out of the box again, James would slap his hand away and give the fully packed box to Peter who would tape it up, Peter gave the box to Sirius and Sirius would write something on the box which would tell the boys what they had packed in there.

After they had finished their drinks, and Sirius his sandwich, they made their way back over to Remus' - soon to be - old bedroom and continued with their unconventional system of packing. They started on the drawers underneath Remus' bed which mostly contained old toys, old school work and books. But there were some odd things in there too.

'What's this?' Sirius asked, who had abandoned his post with the pen through unrest and walked over to Remus who was busy trying to empty the drawers. He had picked up a little gold frame type object with several strings tied from one end to the other.

'It's a miniature harp.' Remus said, glancing up at the object that Sirius was sneering at in his hand. After he had seen what Sirius was talking about, he returned to handing James a lot of old text books which he obviously needed to take with him.

'What?' Sirius laughed, plonking himself on Remus' bed and putting his feet up on the bed side table which, coincidentally, was next to Remus' head. 'Why do you have a harp?' Sirius asked, poking Remus in the head with his toe.

'My grandma gave it to me.' Remus replied, jerking his head away from Sirius' sock covered toe, and giving James a box of quills and ink.

'Why didn't you throw it away?' Sirius questioned, giving it an out of tune strum and making a face at it.

'Because my grandma gave it to me.' Remus said.

'Well what do you want to do with it?' Sirius asked.

'Throw it away.' Remus shrugged, passing another book over to James who looked at the title mystified.

Sirius threw the hard over his head saying, 'Excellent choice'. It bounced against the door, leaving a little indentation in the wood thanks to years of being a beater and always using his full force when hitting or throwing things. He took no notice of his vandalism and continued to talk to Remus. 'We don't want any of your crap clogging up the place.' he joked.

'I sincerely doubt any one could clog up the place.' Remus answered, a laugh in his voice as he made harmless fun at the ludicrous size of the Potter mansion, to which James chuckled himself over. The mansion he had grown up in was ridiculously large. He could probably house a large village comfortably in that place.

'Oh contraire my friend,' Sirius said, shaking his index finger and standing up on Remus' bed in a slow, dramatic motion. 'It happened, noon, the other day. I was in the toilet and, let me tell you-'

'I'd prefer it if you didn't.' Remus said, standing up with a small box which had potion phials rolling around audibly inside it. He kicked the drawer shut with his foot and walked over to James with the box.

'Oh come on!' Sirius whined, throwing his hands down to his side like a little girl having a temper tantrum, 'It's a funny story!' he went on, turning to James for support, 'Right Prongs?'

'Err…yeah.' James said, raising an eyebrow and shrugging at Remus as he took the small box he was offered, 'It's…hilarious.'

'See.' Sirius boasted, plonking himself back onto the bed with a squeaky but surprisingly springy bounce.

'Still don't want to hear it.' Remus laughed, walking round his bed to the drawer the other side. He opened it and set to work on sorting the stuff out whilst James passed the box he had just finished packing to Peter to tape up.

'Fine.' Sirius pouted, almost snatching the box off of Peter and writing on it in huge black letters that began to dwindle and shrink as he ran out of room.

James looked at the box and sighed. 'My mum will see that.' he said with a small raise of his eyebrows as he read Sirius' message.

'What does it say?' Remus asked, not looking but instead, shoving a lot of old toys and comic books he had had as a child on his bed.

'Books and quills and shit and why do you have a miniature harp you prissy little cherub.' James read, taking out his wand and summoning another box from the flat-packed pile in the hallway. He began to put it together as Sirius began to go off on a 'this is awesome, shut up' rant.

'-and you'll know what's inside and I'm making memories and its awesome and-'

'Padfoot just cross out the word shit and its fine.' James said, cutting Sirius' speech short.

'Why though?' Sirius whined, 'We are adults! We are MEN!'

'We are.' Remus said motioning to himself and James, 'You're not. Cross it out. You know Prongs' mum doesn't like swearing and neither does mine for that matter so just cross it out cause you don't want to have to deal with her.'

'Why?' Sirius moaned.

Remus looked at him with a deadpanned expression. 'She raised a werewolf.' he said.

* * *

Lily Evans was sat in her room attempting to fill out the forms she had to return to the wizard hospital, St. Mungo's, to apply for the healer training programme. It was a five year long course that began in late September and, at the end of it, she would become a fully-fledged healer, specialising in an area of healing which she had yet to choose. She assumed she would decide what she wanted her speciality to be after three years in the programme, training in whatever she had chosen for the final two, but she wasn't certain. The healer training programme was two whole years longer that the auror programme that James and the marauders were planning on applying for and there had to be a reason for that, didn't there? And the only solution that Lily could think of was the fact that you had to have a speciality to be a healer but you didn't necessarily need one to be an auror. Other than that, the training was pretty similar, (other than the obvious differences such as the content of the course). That was part of the reason she was putting in an application for that programme as well, as a sort of back-up plan.

Becoming an auror wasn't really what she really wanted to do. Healing was. Because as a healer she felt she could help more people and, in her opinion, make more of an impact. She could save a family by treating a mother or a father, curing a child or just ensuring that they were all healthy. She could make breakthroughs in healing potions and possibly, one day, even help someone with Remus' particular fate overcome it. She could discover a cure to dragon pox or at least a way to prolong the inevitable. She wouldn't be able to do that if she was an auror.

Sure, as an auror she could also put in a helping hand - contributing to the longed downfall of Voldemort, protect those in danger from him until that happened and ensure that her family was safe – but really, she would probably do more harm than good. And that was all down to her blood status. The auror department, those she worked for or with and her family would all be in danger if she threw herself into the thick of it. Not to mention James' wellbeing for she knew if they were together and out on auror business he would stop at nothing to protect her from harm. A chilling thought really. So healing was her ambition. And she was sure to get into the programme if only she could write a good enough personal statement.

She didn't want to admit it but it was actually hard for her to do. She had filled out the form now, detailing her role at Hogwarts as a prefect and head girl, (something which was sure to give her an edge as there was only one head girl each year!). She had written down her O.W.L grades and her predicted N.E.W.T's. Explained her previous work experience and even her entire history school of attended schools, which she was sure was just a way for the administration department to find out what her blood status was as they weren't legally allowed to ask for that on the application at the minute. (That law would soon be eradicated). Her years at primary school gave it away though as only muggleborns really attended such an institution. Yes, she had been extremely truthful in filling out her applications, even being able to include a rare letter of recommendation, sealed, from Professor McGonagall. But she was still struggling with the personal statement section which was the only thing she had left to do.

She didn't understand why she was having such difficulty with it. She could write a glowing testimony for somebody else, detailing all their best qualities and finest skills, but for herself, she just couldn't seem to put pen to paper. She felt as if she were boasting if she said she excelled in the art of charms and potion making but if she only said that she had adequate skills in these fields then she was selling herself short. If she said that she was caring and friendly then her mind just reminded her of the fact that she wasn't particularly nice to James and the marauders over the years, (even though they didn't particularly deserve the niceties when they were still bullying morons), and she had slapped her ex-best friend and told him that he didn't matter in her life. When she looked over these things she just didn't see herself as very friendly or caring. She had also stopped being friends with Hestia thanks to an ultimatum she had been given by her which could have been seen by outsiders as Lily choosing her boyfriend over her best friend when really, the situation demanded choosing a lifestyle that was not infected with prejudice and discrimination and that did not contradict her own beliefs. So, technically, she could say that she had moral fibre. But then she would have to explain why and it was just too complicated to go into and, if she didn't write it properly, she could just come off as an uncaring bitch.

The more she thought about it the more she saw herself in the worse light imaginable. Whenever she thought of something she could write down, she always seemed to find a way to talk herself out of it, thinking she couldn't possibly possess the qualities that she had thought of. She had considered just looking at the reference that Professor McGonagall had written for her but she knew that if she did, it would be worthless to the board of administration who dealt with the healer application forms. She had also asked her mum and dad for help but they were practically useless when it came to her skills. As the only witch they knew, they just thought that everything she did was impressive. They thought that she should just write everything she could do down, viewing it all as brilliant, even though it was only standard stuff. It was all rather frustrating.

She had written to James asking him for advice on what to write but he was useless too. He had just told her that she was brilliant and not to worry; St Mungo's would be mad to turn her down, with or without a personal statement. She knew he was busy helping to pack up all of Remus' stuff so that he could move into the Potter mansion but, rather selfishly really, she had expected him to drop it all and come and help her. She obviously couldn't really continue to expect that sort of attention now that they had left Hogwarts and would each be doing their own thing. Their relationship would change now. And so she guessed, for this at least, she was on her own. She needed to write this short essay and she had no help, no guidelines and no idea how to do it. There were only two days until it needed to be completed. It was all a bit much so, really, she should have been relieved when her mum called her. Instead she just became more anxious and nervous that she wouldn't get it finished in time and, as an extension of that, annoyed that her family didn't seem to understand the importance of it.

'Lily come help me prepare dinner please.' Heather Evans had shouted up to her daughter.

'I'm a bit busy at the minute.' Lily called back down to her, frustration clear in her voice. She was sat at her desk pouring over her application forms and really didn't think it was the time to be peeling potatoes.

'Now Lily.' Heather responded, a note of finality in her words that made Lily sigh and rise from her desk.

She left her room and descended the stairs, making her way into the kitchen where her mother was scrubbing some carrots with a vegetable brush over the sink. There were potatoes in a colander on the draining board next to her and a joint of beef seasoned with garlic and rosemary, a speciality of her mothers. Lily looked around the busy kitchen and sighed. Grabbing a sharp knife from the drawer and setting to work on the potatoes, she remembered what day it was and what it meant. She had been so consumed in her work, in trying to fill out those wretched forms and attempting to write that damn personal statement she had forgotten. It was Sunday. And Sunday meant a visit from Petunia and Vernon Dursley.

Apparently they had been doing this every Sunday since Petunia and Vernon returned from their honeymoon. Lily had been unaware of it as she had been at Hogwarts and her mother and father had never included this piece of information in their letters to her. The first she had heard of it was a week before hand which had been her first Sunday back from Hogwarts. It had sort of been sprung on her that Sunday, an odd precaution taken by her parents in case she put up a fuss, (something which she hadn't done). After that first meal with her sister and her husband though, she wished she had. It was three hours of pure torture and she was very reluctant to relive it which she was being forced to do today. Even worse, this week she was being made to prepare for it as well which basically just added two hours onto her purgatory.

'They'll be here in an hour and a half.' her mum said, putting a freshly washed carrot onto a chopping board and picking up another.

'Great.' Lily mumbled. 'You know mum I really don't have time to-'

'You don't have time for your sister?' her mother cut in, scrubbing a muddy home-grown carrot clean, the water that was running over it turning a murky brown as it fell into the sink.

'That's not what I meant.' Lily replied with a roll of her eyes, her tone challenging to her mothers. 'I've just got to write my personal statement for my training programme applications and I only have two days till I have to hand them in.'

'Lily you've been home for just over a week.' Heather stated, an obvious note in her voice which basically said that whatever Lily tried, she wasn't getting out of dinner _or _helping to prepare for it. 'That means you have also had a week to write this personal statement and if you haven't finished then that's your own fault. You knew you had to help me prepare for this dinner so stop complaining and peel the potatoes.'

'I am peeling the potatoes mum.' Lily said through gritted teeth. She stood doing her job in silence for a couple of seconds, taking the skin off of them just a little too thick so she was losing half of the potato. She then went about trying to correct her mum and explain to her, give her a viable excuse as to why she hadn't finished her personal statement yet.

'I haven't really had all week if you think about it.' Lily said, a little quietly, obviously not too confident in trying to contest her mother. Still, she went on, even after her mum's audible sigh. 'I had to unpack on the Saturday. We had this meal last Sunday where Tuney asked us to pack up all her old things so she could move them into her new house which we spent Monday and Tuesday doing. Wednesday we took the boxes round to hers and then did the shopping and then Thursday you wanted to have a good spring clean of the house because all of Tuney's stuff had finally gone so really, if you think about it, I only had yesterday and Friday.' she finished, quite proud of her argument, even becoming braver towards the end of it thanks to her Gryffindor nature. 'That's just not enough time to do it in!' she ultimately ended.

'Don't do this Lily.' Heather told her daughter straight, 'You've had plenty of time to do it and you still have plenty of time. Perhaps if you hadn't spent most of your time writing to James you would have finished it sooner.' she said plainly, 'Don't turn this around to be my fault. Just help me with dinner.'

'Fine.' Lily replied stubbornly.

For the next forty-five minutes, Lily peeled an abundance of potatoes, made a mix for a Yorkshire pudding and chopped up a portion of broccoli. She thought that, perhaps if she finished all of this then her mother would allow her to return to her bedroom and finish off her personal statement but that wasn't the case. Instead, she was told to set the table and clear up the living room before Petunia and Vernon arrived which they did at precisely one o'clock.

When they got there, she was stuck in a family commitment which wasn't going to be disturbed by anything. They went into the living room at first, for half an hour, to relax and have drinks, speaking with Richard Evans who had been sat reading the newspaper all morning being particularly unhelpful. At half one Heather announced that dinner was ready and the Evans' and the Dursley's piled into the dining room and sat down whilst Heather placed down serving bowls full of vegetables, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes and Yorkshire puddings, placing the joint of beef near Richard at the head of the table so he could carve it, something he did with precision and pride.

They family sat in an uncomfortable silence. Well uncomfortable for Lily who kept receiving wary looks off of Vernon and glares off of Petunia, the pair obviously still remembering the dinner the week before hand when an owl from Remus had interrupted their family meal, flying in through the window and landing on the chicken they had had. The atmosphere continued whilst everybody filled their plates with whatever they desired. Vernon's plate was twice as full as Petunias, something which Lily couldn't help but think about Sirius over for she knew that would be the amount of food he would have grabbed for himself. The only difference was Sirius would never put on any weight with it. Lily thought that rather unfair but it was obviously just the way Sirius' metabolism worked. Some people were like that.

When their plates were full, Vernon went into an apparently interesting story about a game of golf that he and his boss had had the day before. He explained that they were talking about Vernon's future at the company and how it looked to be as if he were set to run it all one day. Petunia listened raptly and Heather seemed mildly interested. Richard spent his time thoroughly focused on his meal whilst Lily just pushed her food around her plate, contemplating on what she should put into her personal statement. Her dad noticed this, even through his concentration of eating.

When dinner was over and the family had eaten dessert, (a lovely rhubarb crumble with custard that Petunia had brought over with her), they rose to go into the living room. All but Richard and Lily made it in as Richard had stopped her daughter in her tracks to see what was wrong with her, hoping at the same time that it had nothing to do with that boyfriend of hers.

'What's wrong their sweet-pea?' he asked her, motioning for her to retake her seat as he did hers. They needn't have done this really but Richard was stuffed from dinner and needed to sit down or else risk feeling a bit of sick. 'This isn't about the arrogant toe-rag is it?'

'No Dad it's not.' Lily replied in a bored voice, already tired of her dad's conception of James and the fact that he wouldn't use his name. And it had only been a week! He had already banned him from the house but when Lily said that was fine they'll just go to his, (also mentioning his mum works a lot and that his dad was unfortunately no longer around), Richard thought better of it and insisted they spend time in his house instead so he could keep an eye on them. Lily didn't plan on sticking to this rule but at least it meant she could have James over, even if it was under the watchful eye of her dad.

'Then what's wrong?' her father asked, the concern for his daughter flooding his voice now that he knew it had nothing to do with the boyfriend he didn't approve of.

'I have to finish writing my personal statement for my healer and auror applications, and I'm stuck enough on them as it is, but mum insists that I need to spend this time with Tuney and Vernon and you and her.' she explained, deflation in her words. 'You and Mum I don't mind about but I just don't get why I have to sit through any more glares or disapproving looks from Jonah and the whale when I genuinely have something important to finish.'

'Why is it so important to finish it?' Richard asked, not fully clear on what these applications meant in the wizarding world; what the muggle equivalent was.

'Well they decide my future.' Lily said plainly, 'It like…I dunno…an application for medical school here – the healer application at least – and the auror training programme is kind of like a course at university or whatever place you need to go to so you can train to be a police officer. And they have to be returned in two days. That's the final deadline to hand them in.'

'You want to be a doctor then? Or a policeman?' Richard asked, a little surprised at his daughters ambitions. He had never really realised what they were before. If anything he would have pictured her wanting to be a librarian. Or at least something to do with books. He had bought her enough of them in her lifetime.

'Kind of yeah.' Lily shrugged, 'More the doctor one. That's a healer in my world. James wants to be a policeman though. An auror.' she pointed out in a hope to earn some brownie points for him.

'Mmmhmm.' Richard murmured, not wanting to be impressed that the boy wanted to help uphold the law.

'It was his idea not to see each other before we had to hand them in because of how important they are to get right.' she went on, singing her praises for James just wishing her dad might think twice about how he judged him from an old story Lily had told him a lifetime ago.

Richard just ignored comments about James though. 'Well if these applications are that important then go finish them.' he said, 'I'll deal with your mother.'

'Really?' Lily smiled, standing up and hugging her dad, 'Thank you daddy!'

'You're welcome.' Richard replied, hugging her back before letting her go, watching her skip to the stairs and race up them in an eagerness he could only compare to the time that they had bought her a new doll when she was six and had left it in her room. She wasn't six anymore though. His little girl was growing up. Fast.

* * *

The boys had almost finished packing Remus' old room up. They had spent the night there in hammocks that James had brought with him from his place, hanging them from the beams that ran across the ceiling of Remus' room. They swung in them like little children until one o'clock but then decided they should get to sleep so they could get an early start that day and it had paid off. That day, James and Peter had managed to take all but twelve of the boxes they had packed over to the Potter mansion and into the room which would become Remus'. Whilst they had been doing this, Remus sorted out the last of his things and packed them into his old Hogwarts trunk. Sirius however, feeling unappreciated and bored with the packing, had set to building a fort out of the boxes they had packed the day before in the corner of Remus' room. They were the twelve boxes that James and Peter hadn't moved as Sirius was sat behind them sulking, hiding underneath the cover of the hammocks that he had used as a tent top. Nobody wanted to deal with that at the moment.

Remus was moving around the room, a bit quicker than he had been previously, the thought of finishing and finally moving out spurring him on to work faster. He was packing his clothes, the last thing he had to do, into his truck which lay open on the stripped down bed, his duvet and pillows now providing an inside seating area to Sirius' fort, (They would get them into a large bag or something when it was time to move the last of his things out). He didn't fold his threadbare clothes as he slung them into his trunk, working off of the theory that they couldn't get much more tattered anyway. They were creased and thrown in haphazardly, over flowing onto his bare mattress when two loud cracks, one straight after the other, alerted him, (and Sirius), to the fact that James and Peter had returned.

James was reading a letter when he apparated in, as if it was no big deal to concentrate on reading at the same time as finding your way to a different location without splinching yourself. He made it look effortless when any wizard worth his salt could tell you that it was a difficult and dangerous thing to do. But then again, these things had never bothered James. This was the boy who had mastered a high risk transfiguration, becoming an animagus, when he was just turning sixteen. If you put his accomplishments into statistics, he could probably master things that wizards of thirty years were just learning by the time he was twenty. And yet, he had chosen to put his skills towards pranking the school and bullying the Slytherins. Now that he wasn't at Hogwarts though, Remus couldn't help but wonder what he was going to concentrate his efforts into. He had a hunch though.

'From Lily?' Remus asked him, nodding his head towards the letter as James read it with a smitten smile on his face, as if he was just as in love with her hand writing as he was with her.

'Yeah.' he replied, not tearing his eyes from the piece of parchment in his hands which had creases across it, scars of where it had been folded.

'You heard a lot from her then this past week?' Remus continued the conversation as he stuffed a load of old socks into the toes of his shoes as a way for them to retain what little shape they had left whilst being sucked through the small tube of transport which was what you could only describe apparition to be like. He then tossed them into his trunk with a small throw, almost missing as throwing wasn't particularly a mastered skill of his.

'We write.' James shrugged as if it was no big deal.

'She writes to me too.' Sirius yelled from inside his fort as if he thought there were three brick walls between them.

'No she doesn't you just steal my letters.' James said offhandedly, in almost a murmur. Sirius heard him, though it didn't stop him shouting.

'They have my name on them.' he said, the pout on his face, though not visible to James, Remus and Peter through the boxes, clear in his voice. He was obviously feeling a bit left out which, really, was his own fault. He was the one who had isolated himself from them in a tiny room by stacking cardboard up between them and flinging a sheet over the top.

'You change them to say that.' James said, folding the letter up and shoving it in the back pocket of his deep blue jeans.

'Still counts.' Sirius said, finally emerging from his fortress of escape by popping his head over the wall of boxes, all the hammocks falling to the floor apart from one which draped around his shoulders like a thinning fur cape.

'No it doesn't.' James laughed, throwing a piece of screwed up spellotape at Sirius eye, aiming spectacularly.

'Ow!' Sirius said, even though it hadn't hurt him at all. It had barely tickled really but he was dramatic so, to him, it had practically taken his eye out. 'Yes it does!' he said, holding his hand over his eye and barging his way through the boxes until the contents that they had packed away oh so nicely spilt out onto the floor. 'She writes to me cause she loves me more than you!' he went on before collapsing onto Remus' bed and yelling to the ceiling, 'My eye! My eye! I'm going blind! Somebody save me!'

'So he's become needier since leaving Hogwarts.' James stated to Remus with a chuckle in his voice as Remus rolled his eyes.

'Well he's not getting the attention from the girls now and-'

'I'm extremely frustrated, you know?' Sirius butted in, cutting Remus off half way through his explanation. He sat up, his eye suddenly all better now he was to go on with the rant that had started the day after he and James had returned to the Potter mansion. James had heard it for almost a week now but, apparently, Sirius wasn't done, 'It's like…' he began, seeming to be choosing his words carefully, 'You go from having lots of lip-smackingly gorgeous girls who are willing to do stuff with you and have-'

'Please don't.' Peter whispered from the demolished box fort which he had been attempting to rebuild, whilst repacking the boxes of course, working silently and unnoticed. Remus was too busy packing his trunk with clothes, James was soaking in every word of Lily's letter and Sirius was being dramatic. Peter would have continued his work quietly if Sirius hadn't started speaking about the things that made him uncomfortable; girls, popularity, sex. He didn't have any of it and the way Sirius went on about missing it, even though he was sure to get it back when they all started in the auror training programme, made him depressed to know he would never have it. And he didn't really want to hear about how great it was again and again and again. So he had pleaded, in a small voice, for him to stop. And for once, Sirius did stop. But Peter hadn't noticed the sharp look James had given him which had told him to do so. All he had seen was Sirius' little annoyance afterwards.

'Oh come on!' Sirius said, standing up and glaring slightly at Peter, 'You virginal twats!'

'He's also become much more verbally abusive.' James said to the room at large, only with a very specific aim to make Peter feel better. As if it wasn't his fault and it was just the way Sirius was; nothing to worry about really.

'And you've become a dainty ponce with all your fancy words and…and reading the dictionary and…stuff.' Sirius spluttered to James, now starting to calm down as he couldn't particularly think of a good come back and it had thrown him off his game.

'No less dramatic though.' James said, grinning over at Sirius for he knew he was annoyed at him for making him shut up. Nothing was more fun than irritating your best friend.

'Don't think he will ever be less dramatic.' Remus chuckled, taking the last bundle of mismatched socks out of his top drawer and throwing them into his trunk. He closed the lid and sighed as he stood staring at it for a split second. He was now finished packing. He was officially moving out of his parents' house and in with his two best friends in the world. And James' mum of course.

'Well he wouldn't be our mutt if he did.' James smirked at Sirius, walking over to close the drawers that Remus had left open and empty in his dresser.

'I think…that's it.' Remus said, looking around his now empty room. There were no pictures on the dresser and no clothes inside. There were no scraps of parchment on his desk and the shelves above it were completely devoid of books. The bed was stripped so bare you could see the springs starting to pop out of the mattress along with the dip in the middle that had formed from years of Remus sleeping in the same spot. The floor was free from rubbish and the walls were free from posters, (though there were faint marks and clumps of sticky residue left behind on the wall paper from the spellotape Remus had used to pin them up). Really, if you didn't see the remaining boxes and the trunk on the bed, you wouldn't know anyone had been living in there at all.

'Thank Merlin!' Sirius said, standing up and wiping his brow as if sweat was dripping down his forehead, 'We've been doing this for hours!' he placed a heavy hand on Remus shoulder, 'I'm exhausted!'

'You built a fort.' Remus said incredulously.

'Yeah.' Sirius nodded, patting Remus once before placing his hands on his hips and looking at his, now broken, fort. 'And it was hard work.'

James chuckled and said, 'Don't try to understand him.' He then walked over to Peter and picked up a couple of boxes which Sirius had labelled 'school stuff which should be burned. Really it's the only sensible option' before turning back to Remus and telling him that he, Sirius and Peter would transfer the rest of Remus' belongings to his room at the Potter mansion whilst Remus went to say a final goodbye to his parents. Remus agreed.

He watched his friend's disapparated with three lightning loud cracks before he turned to his bedroom door and exited his bedroom, walking across the small area of space that served as a hallway for the bungalow which the Lupin family had lived in for as long as he could remember. He reached the living room door and took a deep breath before walking in. He was only moving out and it wasn't goodbye forever, but with the state of the wizarding world at the moment, it could be.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 2

**So this is chapter two. :) This is is it for today though cause I have to write some more! This of course is James and Lily reuniting after a week apart as all 'after Hogwarts' stories must have! (There is also Order stuff at the beginning)**

**Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Two**

Now it was the summer holidays, and many of his responsibilities that tied him to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry were over for a couple of months, Albus Dumbledore was able to focus on other areas of the wizarding world which he believed sorely needed his attention. He had looked at them during the last school term, leaving Professor McGonagall in charge of keeping his whereabouts concealed from the students of Hogwarts, and the staff, to ensure that no one knew he had left. That was really something he shouldn't have done. Of course, he returned to the school for the farewell feast but had been unable to make it to his traditional end of year meeting with his two head students, (in this case, Lily Evans and James Potter), leaving them notes instead explaining in minimal detail that he was unavailable. Apart from Professor McGonagall, James and Lily were the only other souls who knew he wasn't at the school. Nobody else had a clue. None of the students, teachers, the school board, the ministry, the children's parents or even Voldemort and his followers knew that he had vacated the premises for little over a month. And that was exactly the way he had wanted it.

During this time away, he had gone to speak to many people who had known Tom Riddle back in the day. Most were unwilling to talk, fearing for their own lives, but others were either less concerned for their own safety or had been given a sneaky drop of veritaserum by Dumbledore himself in hope that something he discovered may help bring down the radical tyrant Tom Riddle had become. Most people he had spoken to and interviewed were from Tom Riddle's school years. They hadn't been much help though. He had also spoken to Tom Riddles previous employers, working off of a theory he had gained from speaking to his old friend and enemy Gellert Grindlewald who had a similar mind set to that of Voldemorts. That had proved most unuseful but he had gained phials upon phials of memories that he was sure held some sort of key to Voldemorts inevitable downfall. It wasn't obvious to him yet though which frustrated him greatly. He had to be missing something but he couldn't quite figure out what. So although he understood the man better for it, he still had no way in hell to stop him for good. All he could do at the moment was instruct the Order of the Phoenix on how to proceed.

The Order of the Phoenix was a small group of the few people he genuinely trusted, enlisted to help and continue with his work against He Who Must Not Be Named. They were there to help him out when he was unavailable to do it himself, which, thanks to his role at Hogwarts, was basically the school year. But during this time the Order had become much more than that, much more that he had originally planned. The movement was, now, a symbol of hope to those who knew about its existence and, in his view, it was the sole drive in the fight against Voldemort and his army of death eaters. It was the Order of the Phoenix that had been able to save the lives of many innocent muggles and muggleborns, blood-traitors and half-breeds.

The Order of the Phoenix was doing many things in the fight to stop Voldemort winning control of the wizarding world. They went out to where they knew attacks were taking place and helped those in need. The arrived after unknown attacks and fixed the damage done, (of course some damage was irreparable). They tracked suspected death eaters or known death eaters and attempted to catch them in the act so they could legally to send them to Azkaban, (though that was pretty useless solution these days), or they just extracted information out of them before wiping their memories. They helped with the protection force for known muggleborns, blood-traitors and half-breeds or else help keep those who were being specifically targeted by Voldemort safe. They went out recruiting for the side of good or else, in search of crucial information, trying to infiltrate Voldemorts army and learn details that could possibly help them in the fight against his dark magic. They did a lot of things, the Order, but they wouldn't be able to do any of it, they would have no idea what to do first, where to go, what to look for or what to do, if Dumbledore wasn't pulling the strings, if he hadn't received information that nobody knew how he had gotten, if he didn't seem one step ahead of Voldemort at crucial times. But they were grateful he had because, in their eyes, they were winning.

Of course, the Order of the Phoenix was made up of quite a few optimists who would believe this even if they were losing. There was Elphias Doge, Arabella Fig, Benjy Fenwick, Marlene McKinnon, Dorcas Meadowes and Fabian and Gideon Prewett, Sturgis Podmore, and Rubeus Hagrid, all known for their optimism and faith. They were positive that they would win this war, that they _were_ winning this war. Their efforts weren't in vain and, even though they were unable to save some of the people Voldemort had been targeting, (quite a few from his old orphanage), they had been able to successfully put others into hiding and out of Voldemorts reach so he was unable to complete his goal. They had managed to help when there had been attacks and they had even been able to predict some of them and prevent them at points. To these members, the Order was strong and impenetrable.

There were of course the pessimists of the group, Aberforth Dumbledore for example, who believed that everything they were doing was a waste of time but kept on fighting anyway as if there was some other force in him driving him to do the right thing in this situation. There was also Mundungus Fletcher who was a con-artist extraordinaire by trade and a wimp by nature. He wanted out so much but was a little bit too much of a coward to go against his word even though he was free to do so at any point, (his role being more of a research one, so he was easily replaced). In his view however, as they had already lost Caradoc Dearborn and Dadalus Dearborn who were both killed by Voldemort. It wouldn't be long now until he was to follow. By staying in the Order, he didn't expect to survive but, on the other hand, he didn't expect to survive by quitting either. It was really a no win situation in his eyes.

After that you had the realists. McGonagall, Alastor Moody and Dumbledore himself who knew that their efforts alone wouldn't bring down Voldemort but who also knew that it was their responsibility to attempt to do so or die trying. Of course, Dumbledore had to be realistic and he was maturely so, as was McGonagall. Alastor Moody took on a different approach and was just rather blunt and brutally honest when it came to an either or situation. When he had been speaking to Benjy Fenwick, Fabian and Gideon Prewett and Marlene McKinnon about a preventative mission they had been instructed to go on by Dumbledore, he had literally said, 'If you don't pay attention, you will die'. It was his self-proclaimed job to instil a sense of 'constant vigilance' into the members of the Order of the Phoenix because that was the only way they were going to win this war. It didn't occur to him that he may be shaking their confidence as he did so.

The Order, just like Voldemort and his followers, had meetings. Really, despite what the two groups were doing, fighting against each other, guarding or gashing, caring or killing, you had to admire the organisation skills they showed. The difference between the meetings though, aside from their main goals, was the way they came about. Voldemort and his death eaters met once every two weeks or whenever Voldemort had something big he wanted them to do, someone in specific he wanted them to destroy. All the death eaters attended their weekly gathering, going to the same little shack, in a concealed forest out of the way somewhere, at the same time every week. If they were to attend a spontaneous meeting, their dark mark tattoos would burn, summoning them to, of course, that same little shack in the forest. Really, it was no surprise that the Order had managed to figure this out and follow them there every week on a Thursday evening at six o'clock. The one thing Voldemort had gotten right though, were the enchantments he had used to surround his property which alerted him to unwelcome guests. The Order had never been able to get inside the building, (if you could call that run down hut a building), merely stand outside the perimeter and wait for the death eaters to emerge, half the time chatting excitedly about what Voldemort had wanted them to do. This was how the Order received half of their information on what the death eaters were going to do next. The one time Order members had tried to go further and get inside to listen to everything Voldemort was saying, they had been killed by Voldemort himself. That was how they had lost Caradoc and Dadalus Dearborn.

The Order took a different approach to their meetings. They were never scheduled precisely. At a meeting, Dumbledore would give them a rough idea as to when they might possibly be meeting again but it never panned out. They met occasionally at different places. Sometimes they met three times a week but, other times, they would go over a month without seeing any of the other members. It was only when new information came to light, when whoever it was who had been assigned to watch Voldemorts shack for the month went to tell Dumbledore new information he or she had discovered. When this happened, the Order were all called together, all via different methods of untraceable communication, (never by owls or memos for they could be intercepted), and told what the plan was. It was an untraceable, unknowing, unplanned chaos but, for some reason, it worked well for them. Plus, none of the death eaters had been able to track them so far.

Recently, they had been meeting a bit more often, (still in a different location each time), thanks to the imperius curse that had been placed on the ministers assistant a few weeks before hand. It had forced the poor young lad to read some files which contained confidential information pertaining to the muggle prime minister. The boy had lost his job the day after he had been caught and, as he had claimed he had only acted under the influence of the imperius curse, the head of the auror department wiped his memory. Before Dumbledore had had a chance to speak to him. So now, as the Minister of Magic and the head of the auror department weren't particularly up to sharing, (no matter how Dumbledore or Alastor Moody asked), the order had no idea whether Voldemort had received the information inside and they had no idea what that information was so they were all trying to work tirelessly to find out. Only when they had figured that out could they know what they were dealing with. And unfortunately, they had nothing more to go on so really, when they met, all they were doing was floating theories.

Most of the theories that the group suggested were, for all intents and purposes, stupid. Gideon and Fabian Prewett were completely convinced that those files contained the undeniable proof that the muggle prime minister was actually a ghoul, backing this theory up with the fact that they had never actually seen the man themselves. Dumbledore dismissed this and told them to stop floating such ridiculous ideas for they were only wasting time. Other theories were actually more credible. Dorcas Meadowes suggested that it could have something to do with a link between the prime ministers family and the wizarding world but no one could think of a viable connection. So they had all decided the information had something to do with whether or not the muggle world would have a general election that would select a new Prime Minister.

They needed to find out if this was the case and what information that file contained. Because if it was announced that a general election in the muggle world would take place, the candidates running for Prime Minister would be in critical danger from Voldemort. If he could take control of the muggle Prime Minister, infiltrate their campaigns and fix the polls, then who knows what he could do after that. He could bring in horribly harsh laws to the muggle world which would decrease the population and make it easier to control. Wizards could take over. Voldemort could win. The Order needed to make sure this didn't happen. They just had to know what was in that file because, if Voldemort had received that information, they wouldn't know what they were dealing with. They might not be able to stop him. And the death toll could rise.

* * *

The first of August brought two things to Lily Evans. One: Today was the day she was to hand in her applications to the Ministry of Magic for the auror training programme and, perhaps more importantly, to St. Mungo's for the healer training programme that was run there. Two: She would be seeing James and the marauders again for the first time since they left Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She couldn't decide which one she was more excited about. Or nervous about for that matter. On the one hand, she was taking a huge step in her life applying for such prestigious programmes, betting on herself and her ability to succeed in getting into at least one of them. It was a life changing move. On the other hand, she hadn't seen James for over a week which, considering they saw each other every day whilst at Hogwarts, was a big deal. And to top that nerve-racking meeting off, the other marauders would be accompanying James to meet her so they wouldn't have any alone time to say hello properly. Still she was excited to see them all again.

She sat outside Florean Fortescue's ice cream parlour in the hot summer sun nursing a cherry wood-smoked porter and rosemary flavour ice-cream with brown sugar and cayenne pepper-dusted peanuts, pecans and almonds. She wanted to be adventurous but it wasn't particularly working out for her. The cayenne pepper-dusted peanuts didn't taste too great and just reminded her why she didn't eat things like nuts and trail mix very often. However, she could see Florean Fortescue through the window, looking very dashing in his work uniform, and thought it would be too rude to throw it away or just stop eating. Plus, she didn't want to hurt his feelings as she had had a small 'celebrity' crush on him ever since her third year at Hogwarts. Now she had James it had diminished somewhat but somehow, she still cared whether she upset him by disliking any of his daring ice-cream flavours. All she could do to excuse herself from this ice-cream was wait for James and the marauders to come and meet her so they could whip of to the Ministry of Magic together. She wouldn't feel as guilty for leaving the ice-cream if they arrived.

They were due any minute now but Lily knew they'd be late. They had planned to meet at half ten but, because Sirius was a lazy arse bugger who didn't get out of bed until the middle of the afternoon, (something Lily would love to be able to do), James had written her a note saying they would be later than they had originally planned. She felt kind of sorry for James, and Remus now he was living with them, to have to get Sirius out of bed that morning. He wasn't exactly a morning person so it was a job and a half. Neither was she though so she did sympathise. James, however, had no problem with mornings and as they shared a room, (still a bizarre thing to Lily considering all the rooms that were available in the colossal mansion James lived in), it was up to him to shift Sirius' carcass out of bed and down to Diagon Alley. If anyone could hoist Sirius off of that mattress then James could, usually with the offer of food.

She waited until ten past eleven at Fortescue's, spooning small mouthfuls of her unfortunate tasting ice cream into her mouth. She gave polite smiles to the people who passed her as they walked down the cobbled path, (they had obviously known her from Hogwarts), and returned waves to the ones who said hello. She drew circles on the wobbling wooden table she sat at whilst tapping her foot until she heard a familiar chuckle echo down the street. Her nerves about seeing them all again suddenly vanished and, not caring about being rude anymore, Lily stood up and started down Diagon Alley to that all too familiar laugh. She saw the four of them walking a small pack down the street, joking and grinning with each other as they always did.

Peter was at the rear, which wasn't an unusual occurrence, trying to keep up. His small blue eyes were watering a bit more than normal and Lily could only assume this was because of the sunburn that stretched across his cheeks and nose. Remus walked closest to him. He was wearing a brand new coat, (no patches!), and looked ten times healthier than when Lily last saw him. His brown hair looked darker, thicker too, and the small visible scars you could usually see seemed a bit fainter. Sirius looked as handsome as ever, his laughing grey eyes shining as he stole a couple of owl treats from a large bucket outside Eeylops Owl Emporium and flicked them at Peter laughing. He was still laughing when a hand whacked him around the back of the head, messing up his shoulder length black hair ever so slightly. He had been smacked by James.

Lily beamed when she saw him, even though he hadn't seen her at first. He looked exactly the way she remembered, not that she thought he would change that much in just over a week. He was still tall, though from the distance, she could have sworn he'd grown at least half an inch, and handsome as all hell. His hazel eyes glinted through his glasses as he laughed at something Remus had said. He reached out and pushed his best friend to the side slightly in jest, the short sleeve of the t-shirt he was wearing, (which had the ironic faded picture of a male deer on it and bold words that read 'Go Stag' across it), rode up a little to reveal just the tiniest bit more of his arm. He walked with that arrogant swagger he had had ever since she could remember, which just cried out 'aren't I awesome' as he made his way down the street, his hands back in his pockets. Her stomach gave a little somersault as she made her way towards him. He noticed her just before she threw herself into his arms to hug him tightly.

'James!' she said, slinging her arms around his neck.

'Wow. Hi.' James began, a little taken aback from the force on which she threw herself at him, 'I'm sorry, do I know you?' he went on to joke before he hugging her back, picking her up of the ground slightly, smiling as much as she was at seeing her again. He put her back down on the ground and looked at her shining emerald green eyes with a wide grin. He tucked her dark red hair behind her ear resting his hand on her cheek, the other hand around her waist, and stared at her happily just as the other marauders noticed that he had actually stopped.

'Don't move Prongs.' Sirius started as he, Remus and Peter walked the short distance back to where James and Lily stood, 'It may bite.'

'I'll bite you.' Lily said to him, her arms still wrapped around James' neck, James now wrapping both around her waist and holding her tightly. She felt him chuckle as she looked over to Sirius with raised eyebrows.

'That a promise?' Sirius teased, waggling his eyebrows at Lily with a mischievous smirk.

'Ignore him.' Remus smiled at Lily, shaking his head slightly at Sirius' insinuation whilst Peter, who stood next to him, waved a little shyly at her.

'Don't ignore me!' Sirius pouted, scowling at Remus for a moment before opening his arms to Lily and saying with a giant and rather frightening grin. 'Where's my hug there Lilykins?' he said to her, waiting for her to leave James arms and walk into his. James gripped Lily a little tighter around her waist.

'You're not hugging her.' James stated, 'You made me wait to say goodbye to her on the platform so you can wait to say hello.'

Sirius arms collapsed to his side and he said, with the straightest face, 'That is really childish Prongs.'

James snorted and pulled Lily round to his side, releasing one of his arms from her waist but keeping the other one there securely. Lily mimicked his stance with her arm around him.

'What do you mean made you wait?' Remus frowned in confusion, taking a small step back to allow a small, doddering old witch through the middle of the group who was muttering under her breath about the 'damn kids thinking they own the bloody street'. They were kind of creating a blockage in to flow of traffic down Diagon Alley.

'Did I forget to tell you?' James opened with a smirk at Sirius whose face quickly fell. 'Sirius got a bit emotional on the platform after you left.'

'What?' Remus laughed, folding his arms and looking to Sirius with his eyebrows raised in mocking question.

'Let's get one thing straight here,' Sirius began, 'I did not-'

'He cried.' James interrupted.

Remus roared with laughter, clapping Sirius on the back who didn't look too impressed. In fact he down right glared at James who just smirked once again and pulled Lily in a little tighter to himself. She was trying to smother her own giggles.

'Why you laughing?' Sirius moaned.

'I'm not.' Lily tried to say innocently, her expression saying otherwise.

'Aw mate don't worry.' Remus said, calming down his laughter 'I promise we won't make fun of you for this.'

Sirius didn't look convinced. 'Really?' he asked sceptically.

'Really.' Remus said with a sincere nod, placing a hand on Sirius' shoulder, 'We wouldn't want to make you cry.'

James laughed with a nod of his head in improvement at Remus' joke towards Sirius. Peter tittered along with him, the sun burn across his nose cracking slightly as if it was about to peel.

'Should we go?' Lily said, now wanting to get the whole ordeal of handing in the training programme applications over and done with as she had now gotten over the whole, 'meeting the marauders' thing.

'Sure thing.' Remus said to her before turning to Sirius, 'Ladies first.' he said with a gesture of his hand and a boyish smirk on his face. Lily noticed he seemed happier and full of jokes.

Sirius scowled at him, narrowing his eyes in an attempt to wipe the teasing expression off of Remus' face. It didn't work. So instead he just shook his head and started to walk down to the leaky cauldron where they would take the floo network over to the Ministry of Magic. They had all voted it was a nicer way to travel there for the first time rather than flushing themselves down the loo as was the norm with employees there.

Remus followed after Sirius and guided Peter along with him, allowing Lily and James to walk on their own just behind them. When Lily tried to follow however, James held her back for a moment.

'Aren't we going with them?' Lily asked, looking up at him as he smiled at her.

'In a minute.' James replied, turning her around to face him again and looking into her eyes. He tipped up her head slightly by a finger under her chin and leant down to kiss her softly on the lips. He pulled away after a lingering moment. 'Hi.' he smiled.

'Hi.' Lily grinned back at him.

They looked at each other for a couple seconds longer before they heard Sirius calling over his shoulder and down the street in the loudest voice he could possibly muster, 'Are you coming lovebirds?'. James chuckled and shook his head slightly before offering his arm to Lily so that she could link hers through. They caught up with Remus, Sirius and Peter at the pub.

As they walked through the door, James called a greeting to Tom, the young landlord who had just had to take over the family business, only two years out of Hogwarts. It hadn't originally been planned that way but his father had just been killed by some of Voldemorts followers right before the end of the last school term. James had found out when he had returned home from Hogwarts. As his mother had been friends with Tom's father, she had attended his funeral the week just gone, bringing James with her as moral support for Tom as he was closer to his age than any of his father's friends or colleagues. For someone who had just lost his dad, James thought he had it together, surprisingly so. They had actually gotten along rather well, only really knowing each other from passing in the hallways at Hogwarts before then. As they'd gotten on so terrifically, Tom had offered the use of his fireplace and the connection to the Ministry floo network to James for this day. He had said it was no big deal and had even invited him, and his friends, to have a meal at the Leaky Cauldron on the house. After they had all handed in their applications, they were going to do that.

Right now though, they all stood at the large fireplace in a little group. Sirius grabbed the small box of floo powder that Tom had left on the mantelpiece for them and offered it to James.

'Age before beauty.' he smirked.

James didn't look too amused. 'You're older than me.' he said.

Sirius' face fell and he lowered the box of floo powder ever so slightly. 'What's your point?' he asked rhetorically.

'Nothing, nothing.' James said, the hints of his own cheeky smile starting to form on his face. 'Don't worry about it.' he went on, 'I wouldn't want to upset you. Especially as we know how emotional you can get.'

Peter tittered and Remus chuckled, as did Lily before she pointed out to Sirius, 'And you have to live with them.'

'Don't remind me.' Sirius sighed.

'Yeah don't remind him.' Remus said, stepping forwards and taking a handful of floo powder, (it was obvious no one else was going to), 'I haven't got any tissues on me at the minute.'

* * *

All five of them had now handed in their application to the Ministry of Magic for the auror training programme. They had waited in an abnormally long queue to do so for an hour and a half. Peter had seemed a little confused as to why Lily was handing one in as well but hadn't admitted that he was just scared of more competition for a place as there was only a limited number available. Remus had just sort of thrown it at the man behind the desk who was in charge of collecting them when they finally got there, having no confidence that he would even get into the programme. Really he had no idea why he was applying. He had even less chance than Peter and he was sure to have gained better grades than him _and_ in all the required subjects. Sirius had been cheeky, as per usual, even after all that waiting, and had asked the man where the pile was for exceptional candidates. James had said he would be needing directions to that pile too. Then they left and apparated to a little alley behind the entrance to the wizarding hospital.

They were now at St. Mungo's, handing in Lily's second application; this time for the healing programme. The hospital was buzzing with patients which, technically wasn't surprising, but James had never really seen the place quite so full. They couldn't find any available chairs in the ground floor waiting area, all being taken up by people with the same shining grey wounds, so they just hung out near a large green and orange plant in the corner. They were gonna wait there when Lily went to hand in her application. She needed a bit of a shove to go do so though.

'Do you want me to hand it in for you?' James asked her, knowing she wanted to do it herself but asking her nonetheless in an attempt to actually get her to go. He could see his friends, well, Sirius, was getting a little impatient. But then again, maybe he just wanted the whole day to be over because Remus and James hadn't stopped making fun of him since Diagon Alley. That was two hours and a very long wait in a queue ago.

'No, I can do it.' Lily said in a wishy washy voice, bringing her application into her chest. She glanced over at the small desk near reception which had a very stout looking woman sitting behind and a large sign hanging in mid-air above it that said 'Applications Here'. There was an arrow hanging down from it pointing to a very ominous looking tray of paper. A few people were queued up in front of the desk but nowhere near as many as there were for the auror programme. It meant less competition for a place but it also meant that it would only take about five minutes for Lily to reach that desk. She was bricking it.

'Okay.' she said with a large exhale of breath, her eyes widening slightly at nothing, 'I'm going.'

'You're still stood here.' James said.

'Well it's the hardest thing I've had to do in my life so far!' Lily retorted through gritted teeth which caused James to raise his hands in defence.

'Not really.' Sirius sighed impatiently, looking at his finger nails as if they were the most interesting thing in the world, 'Remember when you had to choose between our Jimmy-boy and-'

'_Since _Hogwarts.' Lily corrected then. She didn't really want to be reminded that she was forced to choose between James and her then best friend, Hestia Jones. It still hurt her that she had to make that choice.

'I was just pointing out that-'

'Don't think I won't curse you.' Lily interrupted, cutting Sirius off in what was sure to be another remark about the ultimatum she had been given. She felt the slight tension that her words had made though so she lightened the situation by giving him a wicked grin and saying, 'I still owe you one for calling me Lilykins earlier.'

'Ah don't curse him Lily.' Remus said with a grimace and a shake of his head, 'I can't be dealing with the water works.'

That was all that was needed to diffuse the situation and to get Lily in gear to go and hand in her healer application. She left the boys by the plant and headed off to the desk on the other side of the hospital floor and the now, non-existent queue.

When she was out of ear shot, James turned to Sirius. 'Please don't bring that up with her mate?' he asked simply.

Sirius took a deep breath, in and out and agreed, apologising to his best friend but also saying with that insinuating tone of his, 'bet you're glad she chose you though Prongs, hey?'. His words, mostly James' nickname, caught the attention of a witch behind them.

'James.' came the woman's voice. It was older.

James turned around to look at the witch behind of him. She was short, (well to him), and a bit plump with the same colour eyes that he had. It was his mother. 'Mum.' he said, stealing a quick and almost unnoticeable glance to the back of Lily's head across the way, 'What are you doing here.'

'James I work here.' his mother replied. She then turned to the boys behind him. 'Hello boys.'

'Hello Mrs Potter.' Remus and Peter greeted politely whilst Sirius threw out his arms in greeting and said, 'Janey!'

'Hello Sirius.' Jane Potter said with a fond smile and shake of her head. She turned to Peter. 'How's your mum Peter?' she asked him, checking on how Mrs Pettigrew was doing a year and a half or so after she had been attacked, brutally, by some death eaters up where she lived.

'Fine thank you.' Peter squeaked. He always got a little bit nervous talking to Jane Potter, probably worried she was going to tell him off or tell him that she didn't see why her son was friends with such a weak little thing as him. Of course, that was all just in his head. Jane liked Peter.

'And Remus dear, how are you settling in to the house?' Jane asked Remus having not had time over the past couple of days to make sure he was finding everything all right. When James had asked, well, told her that Remus was going to be moving in with them, Jane couldn't help but be happy at someone else enjoying the place. Plus it was just another person that meant she wouldn't be alone in that gigantic mansion all by herself. She was pleased to have the boys back, even though she was sure they would drive her nuts in a matter of weeks.

'Very well thank you Mrs-'

'Weren't you working on fourth today mum?' James asked, glancing over at Lily again and shoving his hands in his pockets.

'I was supposed to be but my schedule was shifted around.' Jane sighed, 'There's just far too many intake for the healers to handle down here. We need all hands on deck.'

'Has something happened?' Remus asked concerned. He knew attacks were getting more frequent nowadays but, as far as he knew, Voldemort and his forces were just a threat at the minute; they hadn't taken the Ministry down yet. Until that happened, Voldemort stayed out of power and committing crimes.

'No but we've been put on alert for more to come in with every witch and wizard thinking that anytime they hurt themselves it's thanks to the work of dark magic.' Jane said, 'It's ridiculous! I had a grown man come in yesterday saying that his frying pan started to beat him. It was the work of you-know-who to him but it was only his wife after she found him in bed with another woman.'

'Wow.' Remus said, 'Talk of drama.'

'Yes, well…everything's dark magic these days.' Jane said, 'It shouldn't affect you boys though. Unless you read a newspaper, listen to the radio or you're actually there when death eaters arrive then you can just block out this war. Pretend it's not happening.'

'There are loads more better things you can pretend about though!' Sirius said mischievously.

Jane gave him a reprimanding look, (which did nothing), before she turned to a young healer who had just run up to her side with a small clipboard in hand and asked her a question.

James looked over to Lily again. She was at the desk now. He seemed more nervous about this than she did but no one really knew why.

'Loads more better things?' Remus asked Sirius, commenting on his grammatical error. Sirius just grinned at him and nodded slowly, that mischievous look still in his eye. He didn't get the correction of his grammar. Instead he thought Remus was wondering what these 'loads more better things' were.

'Well then dear,' Jane said turning back to James, 'I should probably get back to work. Was there something you wanted?'

'What?' James questioned, a little taken aback before remembering that he hadn't told his mother he would be coming to the hospital today. He shook his head. 'Nope. I'm good.' he said, grinning at her in hopes she wouldn't ask anything else. He was wrong.

Jane frowned suspiciously. 'Was there a reason you came to St. Mungo's today then?' she asked.

Lily took this moment, before James could answer his mother, to come galloping over to him, grab his arm with both of hers and say 'Jesus Christ that was scary!'

James didn't look at Lily. For a moment he didn't look at his mum either. He looked at the ground for a few seconds before he lifted his gaze and met his mother's curious eyes.

Lily realised something was up but she had no idea what. She looked to her left, just behind James, to Remus who subtly pointed his finger forwards to Jane Potter who was now raising her eyebrows in wonderment. She was looking between James and Lily and Lily felt the back of her neck burn a little.

'Err…hi?' she said looking to Jane Potter than back to Remus with a small shrug of her shoulders, unsure what to do and unsure of who this was. Remus' lips disappeared and he widened his eyes once, nodding his head forwards in a motion that Lily should turn back to Jane Potter.

Jane looked at her son. 'James?' she said, waiting for an introduction.

James sighed and lifted his eye line to the ceiling above him. 'This is Lily.' he said to his mum, 'My girlfriend. Lily,' he said to her, 'this is my Mum.'

Lily's eyes widened. She wasn't expecting this. She had come out today, nerve wracked to the point of exploding about handing in her applications and seeing James and the boys again but really, she should have been nervous about this. James' mum was the only family he had left. Meeting her was huge. She let go of his arm like it was a hot potato and extended her hand out to Jane Potter for a polite handshake. 'Hi I'm Lily.' she said, 'Evans.' she added as an afterthought.

'Hello.' Jane replied, taking Lily's hand and shaking it courteously. She then turned to James. 'Girlfriend?' she asked.

Her question, this one word, clued the others and marauders into why James was acting a little weird at the minute. It explained why he wasn't smiling and why he would now look neither his mother or Lily in the eye. He hadn't told Mrs Potter anything about Lily. She hadn't known her son had a girlfriend. Until just now.

'Yeah.' James said to the ground in a slightly breathless voice.

Remus, Sirius and Peter all shared awkward looks, trying their hardest not to make any remarks to make this situation any more uncomfortable than it already was.

'You never mentioned you had a girlfriend James.' Jane said to her son, that happy tone in her voice – the one mothers get when they learn their son is seeing someone new. The tone that said, 'ah yes, a way to embarrass my boy'. She was not particularly grasping the entire awkwardness of the situation just yet. 'How long has this been going on then?' she asked curiously.

'Almost a year.' Lily replied.

She got it now. Jane looked just as awkward as the boys behind James. The girl she had just met, had just been introduced to as the girl who was seeing her son, did not look too impressed that he hadn't told his own mother about her. She was looking up at James with a disapproving look whilst he looked away and admired that green and orange plant in the corner. Suddenly it had become rather fascinating to him.

'A year? Oh... Don't worry dear.' Jane said to Lily, 'He hardly tells me anything.'

Lily looked at Jane and gave a small smile, thanking her for the attempt to excuse James from the state of ignorance that he had left his own mother in about his relationship status.

'You know, - Lily, is it?' she said to her, making sure she had her name right. When Lily nodded she carried on. 'You're more than welcome to join us for dinner tonight if you'd like?'

'We're having dinner at the Leaky Cauldron.' James said, 'Tom invited us all.'

'Oh…well,' Jane said, 'Perhaps another time.'

'That would be lovely.' Lily smiled gratefully.

'Good.' Jane said as she looked at her watch, 'Now I really must get back to work. It was nice to meet you Lily.'

'You too.' Lily replied.

'See you later boys.' Jane said to James, Remus and Sirius and adding an extra, 'Goodbye Peter dear.'

The boys smiled and waved Jane Potter away and James said, 'Bye mum.' as she turned around and melted into the scene of the hospital.

When she was out of reach and the awkward silence reached its peak, Sirius said, 'Well that was awkward!' in a happy voice in an attempt to diffuse the tension. Lily snapped a glare at him and he dropped his smile.

'How mad are you?' James asked Lily, looking at her through the corners of his eyes, too nervous to look at her directly. He scratched his chin.

'That you're ashamed of me?' Lily said thoughtfully, 'Not at all.' she finished in a sarcastic voice with a quick forced smile before her face dropped into another glare at him and walking away towards the exit.

'Ah Lily…' James sighed, walking after her, trying to catch up to her.

Remus, Sirius and Peter stood still. They were giving James and Lily a good head start.

'Bet you two galleons they fight.' Sirius said to Remus.

Remus looked at Sirius and shook his head. 'I'm not betting with you.' he said.

'Why not?' Sirius questioned with a slight whine in his voice.

Remus shrugged and started to walk after James and Lily. 'You might cry when you lose.' he said over his shoulder.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Hope it hasn't dissapointed as a starter of this story :)**

**The next update will be on the 10th of May (I have two assessments on the 2nd and 9th so it should give me some time to write a nice chunk)**

**Galindaba**


	4. Chapter 3

**Hey guys! :) Just the one chapter for today I'm afraid but this is the introduction of part of the death eater/order plot. That comes out in threads in different chapters but its all information based so I hope its not dull :/ I've done it this way to keep Severus in the story cause...yeah. He's a good character. :)**

**So here we go, Chapter Three :)**

* * *

**Chapter Three**

'My Lord, the last was called almost four and a half years ago.' a death eater informed Voldemort who was sat up at the end of the table.

There weren't many death eaters surrounding him. To a hopeful spectator, this could look like he was losing power, that his followers weren't as supportive of him as they had once been and had left to find greener pastures. They would be wrong. Voldemort had the biggest following now since he had begun to accumulate power, since he had revealed to the world his thirst for a pure-blood society and a ruling of the muggle world. People were as frightened of him now as they had always been and were becoming more scared by the day, worrying whether they would be the next to face his wrath. Those who had dared speak his name before were steadily starting to refer to him as only He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. He even now had an opposition. Of course he didn't believe they were a threat to him seeing as there weren't many people who would want to openly defy him these days in the way that Dumbledore's little group did, but it did mean that he was dangerous enough to warrant such a rivalry.

The door to the little-on-the-outside-huge-on-the-inside wooden shack where Voldemort held his death eater meetings swung open. In walked Severus Snape, now eighteen and newly graduated from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

'My Lord.' he greeted Voldemort after he closed the door behind him. He bowed his head in a solitary motion and was still where he stood, waiting to be invited to the table by Voldemort.

Severus Snape was a lanky lad with a slight hunch to his shoulders which diminished his height by about an inch. He had a hooked nose which was shining thanks to his poor oily complexion. He had a large spot on his right cheek which was filled with puss and ready to pop. A strand of his greasy hair clung to it, the rest falling in ragged curtains around his face, stopping at his shoulders. He wore black robes, sleeves on them singed as if they had been in contact with very hot flames. His appearance wasn't what you could call pleasing to the eye. Not that he cared. His eyes told you all you needed to know. They were blank, unfeeling and a steely grey. Severus Snape was dead inside.

You see, even though Severus had always wanted to practice the dark arts, creating his own spells out of his enthusiasm for it, he hadn't quite imagined his life this way. He hadn't though that his entire being would be labelled 'death eater'. He had become what he wanted and he was serving Voldemort as he had desired to ever since his name had started to mill around Hogwarts. He had however, lost something much more important in the process; Lily Evans. The girl he loved who was in a relationship with the boy he despised. And now, even though she would never know it, he was doing all he could to keep her safe.

He suggested attacks that were far away from Lily's neighbourhood. He created ways to divert the attention away from the wizarding hospital St. Mungo's for he knew Lily had applied for the training programme that was run there. He even tried to put the idea of attacking the auror department to the bottom of the list for, even though he would love to see James Potter get attacked by death eaters, he knew Lily would rush to his aide if she caught a whiff of what was happening. That would put her in harm's way and Severus didn't want that.

The hardest thing Severus was having to do though was pretend that he felt nothing for the girl. He had to hide the love he had for his childhood friend because she was a mudblood; unworthy of being a witch. And if Voldemort knew about her specifically, he would target her and then kill Severus for how he felt about her. So Severus forced himself to become cold and detached, even more so than he had been before, and had practiced the skill of Occlumency so that he would be able to shield his thoughts from The Dark Lord. So far, he had been successful, and the only give away that he was doing anything of the kind, was the dead look in his eyes.

'Ah, Severus.' Voldemort said, very almost smiling at the boy.

Severus Snape reminded him a lot of himself at that age. Ashamed of his blood status, being only half-blood. Humiliated that he had nothing in life; no money, no possessions and no home. And absolutely disgusted at his mother and her low standards in race, marrying a filthy muggle and subjecting her beautifully pure blood to such degradation. Severus was a younger version of Voldemort, only less powerful and completely unable to reach his skill level. He would never amount to anything if he wasn't under Voldemort's leadership and even then he would never become more than a slave. But Voldemort took pity on him due to their similarities. He would be a trusted servant to him. Nothing more.

'Do sit down Severus.' Voldemort said, gesturing to an empty seat on his right, only two places away from himself. It was reserved for his most loyal followers. He would throw mercifulness on the boy. He could sit there today. But only today. For the time being anyway.

'Thank you, My Lord.' Severus said, bowing his head humbly once more.

He made his way down the outside of the long table and took his place next to a slightly older death eater who he believed was named Macnair. He was an employee of the Ministry and Magic in the department for the Control and Regulation of Magical Creatures. He had fine robes and short slicked back black hair. Next to Macnair, (and to the left of Voldemort himself), was Rodolphus Lestrange. All Severus knew about him though was that due to long standing tradition, Bellatrix Black would marry him in a matter of months, something she was not too happy about. He was a few years older than her, taller than average wizard with a lanky frame. Black curly hair that was already balding in places despite his young age and deep green brown eyes. He could be Bellatrix brother in Severus' opinion. He looked at the death eaters opposite him. There were four of them.

Furthest away from Voldemort was Bellatrix Black, the girl whom Rodolphus was now betrothed too. She had mad curly black hair which was growing so long Severus thought it wouldn't be long until she was sitting on it. Her eyebrows were also crazy but under those were adoring eyes which focused solely on Voldemort. Next to her, opposite Severus, was an older death eater who had been with Voldemort from his school days. His name was Mulciber and he also happened to be the father of one of Severus old class mates and now death eater. Next to him was the brother to Rodolphus Lestrange, Rabastan Lestrange. Their whole family were death eaters, the boys' father having attended Hogwarts with Voldemort back when he was still Tom Riddle. They all looked rather similar too with the same hair and eyes.

The death eater privileged enough to be sat nearest to Voldemort, was Lucius Malfoy, a dedicated follower who, by happy coincidence was also highly trusted in the Ministry of magic thanks to his family's long revered standing in the community. He was an invaluable servant to Voldemort and was the one who bewitched the Ministers assistant and forced him to look in a private file which he should never have had access too. It was thanks to him that Voldemort was able to form a plan that would cause everything to fall into disarray at just the right moment for him to take over the wizarding world _and _the muggle world once and for all. He was what some might consider, Voldemorts right hand man. And as one of the most loyal and dedicated followers, his whole life revolved around his being a death eater. He had a wife, Narcissa Malfoy, sister to Bellatrix Black, but she came second in his life and he made sure she knew it. There was nothing at home, at the moment, to make him change his mind about that. He was in this room at all times looking rather smug to be sat where he was. He had long bleach blond hair and a sharp nose, his pale complexion accentuating his matt grey eyes. He looked the part as well as played it. At the minute, he was explaining to Voldemort what he could remember about the file he had had the Minister of Magic's assistant snoop in.

'As I was saying My Lord,' he said, a gravely croak in his voice, 'the last was called almost four and a half years ago. If another is called it is scheduled for next spring.'

'What do you mean by if?' Voldemort queried, not happy at the impreciseness of Lucius' statement.

'There is a slight possibility that the Minister of Magic has given instructions that it not go ahead, no matter what the cost.' Lucius explained, not fazed by the slight irritation in his masters voice at his previous words, 'It would seem that the Minister is worried that you might use the opportunity and disarray to create havoc in both worlds.'

'They'd be right about that then!' Mulciber barked out in a laugh, being one of the only followers of Voldemorts that was able to get away with it.

The few death eaters present at the meeting tittered along to the joke before falling silent at the standard three second mark.

Voldemort nodded his head slowly in thought. 'Am I right in thinking the Minister will have gone to certain measures to ensure a disruption is unlikely in that world?' he asked Lucius.

'Yes, My Lord.' Lucius replied, bowing his head in reverence.

'Well,' Voldemort said, placing his fingertips together, 'That simply won't do. I need someone I can control in that position. If there are measure in place to ensure that that doesn't happen then we need to break them. We need to expose what the Minister of Magic has done to keep things the way they are in the muggle world.' he went on, spitting the word muggle out as if it was filthy. 'Was there anything in that file which provided proof to the Minister of Magic's dishonest actions.'

'Perhaps, My Lord.' Lucius said, 'I can't be certain until I find the boy again though. As a precaution, they have wiped his memory. I have been unable to get anything of use out of him.'

'Try harder Lucius.' Voldemort instructed in such a way it let his followers know that there would be consequences if the information he wanted wasn't found.

'There was one other piece of information in that folder, My Lord.' Lucius said, stepping cautiously after Voldemorts last words.

'And that was?' Voldemort asked.

'Just one word, My Lord.' Lucius answered, 'Marsket. I believe it's a name.'

Voldemort gave a slow nod before turning to Severus who had been listening in anticipation of being called upon. His time came now.

'Severus.' Voldemort said, 'Find out who Marsket is. Have your friend Wilkes help you with this.' He had used the word friend loosely for he didn't believe in such things. It was a sign of weakness to have to rely on someone's friendship.

Severus nodded. 'Of course, My Lord.'

* * *

On Friday afternoon, James sat in the kitchen of the Potter mansion with Remus. He was playing with the snitch he stole out of the Quidditch store cupboard at Hogwarts in his last year, letting it fly away a little bit before catching it and releasing it again. It wasn't particularly moving very well because the previous week, he and Sirius had tried to see how far they could hit it with Sirius' old beaters bat. They had damaged part of its wings so it was flying like a very slow moth; awkward and broken. Still, James played with it. Mostly because it was the only snitch out of the seven they had hit, (one stolen for each year at Hogwarts), that they could find in the acres upon acres of Potter land.

James glanced over to Remus who was pouring over the Daily Prophet which he had laid flat on the table. He had a quill dipped in red ink hovering over the page. James had no idea what he was doing. It could hardly be the cross word because, as a rule in the house, the crossword belonged to his mum. He was sure he had told Remus this. Perhaps not though. James couldn't remember telling Remus much about living in the Potter mansion, only that the eighth step on the main stair case was a sinking step and that the third horse along in the stables in the grounds bit you if you turned your back on it. He decided to check.

'You're not doing the crossword are you?' he asked Remus in what should have been an offhand quiery.

'No.' Remus said, not looking up from the paper. He was unintentionally scowling at it as he read. 'Why? Did you want it?'

'No, no.' James dismissed, 'Crossword belongs to me mum in this place.' he went on, catching the snitch and pointing it over to Remus saying, 'I told you that right?'

'Dunno.' Remus replied, dipping his quill into the inkpot and circling something in the paper before scribbling something small and illegible next to it. 'You might have done. Only rule I remember is don't blow up the house.'

'Yeah that's the main one.' James nodded. You blow up a toilet and an out-house and almost burn the kitchen down one time a piece and all of a sudden your mum thinks you're going to destroy the place if you don't have a rule that tells you not too. The out-house wasn't even his fault. It was Sirius' and his motorbike, which he was outside working on at the minute. But James had gotten the blame for that.

'It's worrying when you have to be warned against it though.' Remus exasperated, still looking down at the paper, He drew a large X in the corner. James had to wonder what it was all for.

'What you doing anyway?' he asked him, beginning to play with his snitch again.

'Looking for a job.' Remus muttered, putting another cross in the top right corner of the paper.

'What?' James asked, astonished. He was caught off guard and allowed the snitch to hoveringly make its way up to the ceiling and start making circles around the chandelier that hung over the long kitchen table. 'Why you looking for a job? We applied for that auror programme.' he stated, leaning forwards onto the glossy oak table.

Remus finally looked up from his paper. 'Come on,' he said in a 'let's be realistic' tone of voice, 'We both know I'm not getting in to that.'

'Who says?' James questioned, shocked at his friends lack of confidence. He was the one who had studied for the N.E.W.T's. He was the one who was bound to get the best grades. Really the Ministry of Magic would be crazy to refuse him. But the Ministry was just that; Crazy.

'Says everyone.' Remus sighed, looking back down to the paper. He turned over the page to look at the next and had his quill at the ready. 'I had to put on my application what I am in the 'On-going Illnesses or Afflictions' section. I'm not getting into any auror training programme James.'

James grimaced. What Remus had said was true. There was a very high possibility that Remus wouldn't be accepted although the way Remus was acting, he had already decided it was a forgone conclusion. Of course the wizarding world had horrible prejudices against people with Remus' condition, what had happened with Hestia Jones in their final year of Hogwarts alone proved that. Did it really mean that Remus should just give up on what he really wanted to do though? It wasn't fair. But James knew that trying to convince Remus to try and have a little faith that he wouldn't be judged wouldn't work. It was all he knew so he wouldn't even attempt to instill hope in him. Instead he just asked him other questions, continuing with a different but similar path of conversation.

'Does that really mean you need a job though?' James asked, standing up and walking over to the long larder cupboard behind the kitchen island, which Remus had his back to, so he could get a drink. He got out a large jug of pumpkin juice and two glasses and set them out on the island to poor himself and Remus a drink.

'I need money James.' Remus sighed, circling something else in the paper. James could only assume they were advertisements for available jobs. It was the topic of conversation after all.

'Why?' James said to Remus'. He poured the orange liquid into two equal glasses. Knowing they'd want more, he left the jug on the side and went to take the glass of juice to Remus and sit down with his own.

'I don't know.' Remus began sarcastically, 'How about for clothes, food, any books I might want to get – thank you –' (he took the glass of juice from James) 'or even just the paper!' he ended, holding up the Daily Prophet momentarily to show James what he meant by paper, even though it was pretty obvious. He then put it down and continued with his job search.

'Pfft.' James snorted in derision, 'Why'd you need a job for all that stuff? I got you covered. No worries.'

Remus paused and his lips disappeared as he took a deep breath. He breathed a heavy sigh and looked up at his friend who was nonchalantly drinking his own Pumpkin juice. It was so easy for him. Remus didn't begrudge him anything he had. James wasn't the type of person to flaunt his wealth, take it for granted or make you feel beneath him if you didn't have as much. Money was just something James had always had but it wasn't all he was about. In fact, if he wasn't so willing to give it all away to every Tom, Dick or Sally that needed it far more than he did, you wouldn't even know he came from money from his attitude, (you could tell by his possessions such as clothes). It was rather insignificant in his life as he believed he had more important things to focus his attention on; his friends, his family, his girlfriend, Quidditch, playing practical jokes and basically just getting into as much trouble as he possibly could. Remus didn't envy his friend his money because what he said was important, Remus also had, (minus the girlfriend). Still, it didn't mean they didn't need money. In an economy driven world, everyone needed a bit to get by.

Whilst his friends were at his house, or even when they weren't, James was more than happy to provide anything they needed and get them anything they wanted. He had bought Remus a new jacket the week before because his had been mysteriously fed to the goats that inhabited a patch of land on the Potter property next to the stables. But James was one of those people that could do things like that, buy his friends things, in such away you didn't feel like he was showing off with what he could do. He was very generous with his money and property and was fully supporting Remus, expecting nothing in return. Only Remus didn't want it to be that way. He didn't want to be dependent on James, even though James didn't mind a bit. He wanted to be more like Sirius who, even though he was living under the Potter's roof, he did have his own money. Granted Sirius' money came from a large inheritance but still, he wasn't completely reliant on the Potters for the basics in life like food and clothes. Remus would be if he didn't do something about it because, essentially, he had nothing. His family had always been poor and they couldn't afford to leave an inheritance for him. His parents couldn't even help at this point in his life. That was why he was looking for a job.

'That's not the point.' Remus said, avoiding James' eyes now that he had put down his glass and was staring at Remus, listening intently.

'Then what is the point?' James wondered.

'I don't want to be someone who scrounges off of their friends cause he can't afford to keep himself.' Remus said, 'I don't want to be reduced to being the equivalent of someone's pet.'

'Please!' James laughed, brushing this off, 'If anyone's gonna equal a pet in this place, it's gonna be Sirius. He's already a mutt!'

'I mean it.' Remus said, not laughing along with James' joke, 'I don't want to be a burden.' He returned to his paper and started to mark available jobs again, crossing out the ones that he definitely wouldn't be hired for. He could possibly be hired to harvest Snargaluff pods for the shop in Diagon Alley that sold potion ingredients but there was no way he would be given a job in Zonko's Joke Shop in Hogsmeade. Werewolves just weren't funny.

James looked away and scratched his chin at the slightly uncomfortable air that the room had taken. He glanced up to the ceiling where his broken winged snitch was crawling through the air, dropping down every few inches a little bit as if it was taking a lot of effort to stay at the height it was. He looked back at Remus who sighed and marked another cross over a job in the paper. James paused.

'You know you're not a burden right?' he said after a moment.

Remus looked up again but only for a moment. 'Aren't I?'

'Nope.' James said before going into a very Sirius-esque dramatic routine. He started sniffing and faking sobs whilst putting his hand to his heart and looking up to the ceiling. 'And you…' he began, a forced crack in his voice, 'Thinking that you are…well…it hurts me Moony. It's hurts me more than milking hurts cows.'

'Milking hurts cows?' Remus asked sceptically, raising an eyebrow at James now he was looking straight at him.

James dropped character. 'Just go with it.' he said, resuming his sniffing, sobs, hand on heart, eyes to the ceiling position afterwards. 'To think that you think I help you for any reason other than you're just the prettiest damn wolf I've ever see…well…perhaps it's time we see other people!'

Remus looked at James for a second, James lowering his eye level to discreetly see what Remus' reaction was. He shook his head and returned to the paper. 'You know, you could give Sirius a run for his money on the dramatics.' he commented offhandedly, smirking slightly as he did so.

'Thanks!' James smiled, glad he had finally broken the slight tension he had felt between the pair of them. He waited for a couple of seconds before returning to the topic that they had originally been discussing, hoping that it was very almost exhausted now but still needing to ensure Remus knew that it wasn't a problem that he was being supported by him. He wanted him to know that he didn't think Remus was scrounging off him because he wasn't. Not at all. He started off with a casual question though.

'So you really think you're not gonna get into the auror programme?' James asked carefully.

'Nope.' Remus replied, popping the P.

James steeled himself and took a deep breath. 'You don't need to get a job if you don't though. It's not needed.'

'James, if not for the money, than for my own piece of mind I will have to.' Remus said honestly, nodding to James. He didn't think it was worth talking about the money issue any more. It would only end up going round in circles. James would tell him it was fine and not to worry about it and he would tell him he didn't want to be a nuisance who asked for a few galleons so he could go buy some new ink or whatever. They would both just continue to make their point, both understanding the other side but not ever giving into it completely. James wouldn't stop offering to help just as Remus wouldn't give in and just live off of James and his mother. It just wasn't what they would do.

'Being in this place alone every day with nothing to keep myself busy,' Remus continued, 'I'd go stir crazy!'

'What do you mean nothing to do?' James grinned, 'You'd prepare my meals me for when I got home. Wash my clothes. Do the dishes. I think you'd make a good little house wife!' he joked.

'I want a divorce.' Remus deadpanned, turning back to his paper.

'I'll get you an apron and everything!' James laughed,

'I feel bad for Lily.' Remus muttered to which James just laughed harder.

Whilst he was laughing Jane Potter entered the room in her healers robes, pinning on the crest of St. Mungo's to the breast panel. She had only been home for an hour during which time she had had something to eat and then taken a bath before responding to the letters that she had received that morning. She had only returned for her lunch break, taking it unpaid so she could make a fleeting visit to her son. She had to go back now. She wouldn't finish until midnight. The long days were taking their toll on her. She was tired and ached and looked a bit pale but still, she powered through.

'What's so funny dear?' she asked James who was still laughing loudly.

'James is gay.' Remus smirked, cutting James' laughter off immediately. He was giving him a scowling look now. Remus shrugged. 'What? You practically just proposed to me.' he pointed out.

'Hey I have a girlfriend.' James said, holding his hands up before regaining his mischievous smirk as he said, 'Sirius is available though. And I'm pretty sure he's in to you.'

'Well why wouldn't he be?' Remus said, standing up and grabbing his own and James' now empty glasses and going around to the kitchen island to refill them with juice, 'I'm a prize.'

James chuckled at Remus' words and would have answered him back with some other witty remark but was spoken to by his mother instead.

'About that girlfriend of yours.' she said, now pulling down the sleeves of her work robes. They'd been washed one too many times and were starting to shrink. 'Have you invited her to dinner tomorrow yet?' she asked him.

'You know,' James began thoughtfully, shaking his finger, 'I thought there was something I was supposed to do.'

'James!' Jane Potter reprimanded, stopping tugging at her sleeves to scold her son, 'It's bad enough you hide that lovely girl away for a whole year-'

'It's not been a year mum!' James said with a roll of his eyes, lounging back in his chair and putting his feet up on the kitchen table. His socks were mismatched and the left one had a hole in the toe.

'She said you had been together for a year.' Jane said first before saying, 'You need to throw those socks out.'

'Firstly, I love these socks and secondly…' he started, trying to think of something to say about the length of his relationship with Lily so far.

'I'm waiting.' Jane said, folding her arms and raising her eyebrows in that motherly way at James.

James could still think of nothing good. 'She…lies.' he said eventually, nodding his head afterwards as if to solidify his response.

Remus snorted from behind the island but, upon receiving a look from James, picked up the now half empty jug of juice and put it back into the larder cupboard.

'Ok, but it's not been a year.' he corrected himself, 'More like seven months.'

Remus coughed. 'Eleven.'

James turned his head sharply towards Remus who was now facing him and his mother, leaning on the island and watching their exchange. 'Got a cough there have you mate?' he asked rhetorically.

Remus just picked up his glass of pumpkin juice, pointed to it, and then proceeded to drink it.

'You've been with her for eleven months?' Jane asked. She hadn't really been able to find out a lot about her sons girlfriend thanks to her hectic schedule at work at the minute. She had been asked to advise on applications for the healer training programme. Anything she had been able to find out about the girl James was dating was what she had quickly glanced at on the application she had handed into St Mungo's. She knew her name, birthday and what grades she was expected. She knew what Professor McGonagall thought of her, reading it in the letter of recommendation that had been written for her and she knew she possessed great dedication. She knew nothing personal however. She expected to learn this at the meal she had wanted James to invite her too but he wasn't very forthcoming with the offer.

'Technically…' James said, weighing up his options of saying yes or no via visible representation of his hands moving up and down, '…Yes.' He dropped is hands, leaning one on the table and the other ruffling the back of his hair up. 'That doesn't mean it's serious though.'

'Loves her.' Remus coughed again, raising a fist to his mouth to cover it and looking down at the worktop on the island.

'Do you need some cough medicine?' James asked him succinctly.

'Nope. Seems to be clearing up.' he replied with a smile.

'Oh James!' Jane cooed to her son, 'Did you tell her you loved her?'

'No.' James replied straight away as if it was reflex.

'Liar.' Remus coughed again.

James widened his eyes and turned back to face Remus who was smirking over the top of the fist that was covering his mouth. 'Thought it was clearing up?' James asked through gritted teeth.

'I was wrong.' Remus shrugged, giving a couple more fake coughs for good measure.

'I will kill you.' James said with narrowed eyes.

'James!' Jane told him off, giving him a stern look until he turned to Remus and apologised for threatening to kill him.

'That's fine.' Remus said, picking up the glass of juice that was meant to be for James, deciding to take it to Sirius now instead. 'Weddings off though.' he said over his shoulder as he exited via the French doors which led out onto a portion of the Potters land.

James shook his head as the doors closed before looking back to his mother. After glancing at her he looked down at the hand he had used to mess up his hair and studied his nail beds.

Jane gave a sigh and looked at her watch. She had just a few minutes before her lunch hour was up and she had to leave to get back to the hospital. She walked over to James and pulled out the chair that was under the bit of table he had his feet up on.

'Feet off the table please.' she told James, batting his ankles with her hand until he reluctantly did what she said. 'James, do you-'

There was a thud on the table next to them. Simultaneously, mother and son turned their heads to see the snitch that had been doing its best to cling to the ceiling, around the chandelier, had fallen down in the centre of the table. It had made a small indentation but, for now, Jane Potter decided to ignore it. Instead, she turned back to her son.

'James do you love this girl?' she asked him motherly.

James took a deep breath before gaining the courage to look at his mother and say, 'Yes.'

He had no idea why he was so nervous about admitting this. He would tell the world how much he loved Lily Evans. He would climb the tallest tower in Hogwarts and shout it out to the whole country, wanting everyone to know that he was in love with a brilliant, beautiful girl. But, for some reason he couldn't quite figure out, he was a little bit terrified to admit it to his mother. And he had thought telling Sirius, knowing he would be taunted and teased for it, would be the hardest thing he had to deal with it when it concerned this. Obviously he was wrong. His mother was a new level of scary on this topic.

And it wasn't even because she was a daunting woman. She wasn't. She was a little short and plump but what she lacked in height she made up for in talent. She was a lovely, kind-hearted woman who was very accepting of things most pure-blood wizards, (or just Remus in general when it came to things like Remus' furry little problem), would just brush away. But for some reason, James hadn't actually told her anything about Lily. It had actually almost caused a fight between himself and Lily when she, by a chance encounter at St. Mungo's, had realised this.

They didn't spat in front of their friends, (much to Sirius' disappointment who had tried to place a bet with Remus that they would), but they had spoken rather heatedly on their way to the Leaky Cauldron where the group was treated to a lovely meal by Tom the new landlord. Lily had been upset that James had failed to mention her existence to his mother. After soothing her worries that he had done it out of shame over her or putting to rest her worries about his mother perhaps being prejudice to her blood status, (something Jane Potter wasn't), he had managed to convince her that he had meant nothing by it. He hadn't hidden her and the only reason his mother didn't know about her was because he hadn't seen her properly since Christmas, thanks to her work and his being at Hogwarts or helping Remus move. He hadn't told her at Christmas because it was the anniversary of his dads death and he hadn't mentioned it in a letter because he had wanted to tell her face to face, something he wasn't actually sure was completely true but he said it anyway. Lily had nodded in acceptance to it but whether it was because she believed him or she just didn't want to fight, he didn't know. They let it go after that though. Now all he had to deal with was his mother's queries about it all.

His mum had lain out a fabulous meal the day after she had found out about Lily and had explained to Sirius and Remus that she just wanted a meal with her son. She gave them some money to go out for dinner wherever they wanted and they left her alone with James, (who had tried to sneak out with his friends before she caught him and forced him to sit at the table). He had then pretended to be the most casual person in the world ever, asking her how work was going, hoping to avoid the interrogation that had followed. It wasn't that bad really but that was probably due to the fact that an owl arrived saying she was urgently needed at St. Mungo's she had to leave just minutes after they had started to broach the subject of Lily. Before she went though, she had told James to invite his girlfriend to a meal on Saturday as that was her next day off. James had agreed but had no intention of actually doing it for reasons he couldn't explain. When she had left, Sirius and Remus came in from the next room laughing because they had been the ones to send the owl to get James out of the dinner. He had high-fived his friends and they had all gone out for a drink at the Leaky Cauldron, avoiding an angry Jane Potter when she found out it was a hoax. She wasn't impressed.

After that she had insisted harder on James inviting Lily to dinner, knowing that the only way she would find out about the girl was to actually meet her again, and properly this time. James had, again, placated her in saying he would write to her but he never did. If she asked why not he would say she had plans with Alice Prewett this week and he didn't want to disturb her and that was partly true. Lily had planned to stay round Alice's for a couple nights that week, she had told him about it on Tuesday. But James had run out of days to use that excuse. It was now Friday so Lily would be home again by now. And his mother wanted the meal tomorrow. He had to either explain the unexplainable – why he hadn't invited her yet and why he hadn't told his mum about her in the first place – or just bite the bullet, write to her, and hope that she said no.

'If you love her why won't you invite her to dinner?' Jane Potter asked her son gently, 'And why didn't you tell me about her?'

And there they were; the unexplainable questions. James had no idea what the answers were to either of these questions. He shrugged. 'I dunno.' he said, 'I guess it's just not something I wanna talk to my mum about.'

Jane nodded her head. She could understand that. Her brother, James' uncle who was now unfortunately deceased, had kept his first three girlfriends secret from both their parents. Jane had been in charge of covering for him when she was younger. She realised that there were something's teenage boys just didn't like to share with their parents. She assumed that when James was comfortable enough, he would have let her know. He wouldn't have been afraid to face the questions his mum would have about Lily. Or any future girlfriends he may have.

'Make sure you invite her to dinner.' Jane Potter repeated, looking at her watch. She had to go back to work now.

James sighed. 'I will.'

'If you don't I'll write to her myself and ask her.' Jane threatened which James rolled his eyes at and lolled his head back over the back of his chair.

'I'll ask her!' he said.

'Good. I'll see you both tomorrow then.' she said, standing up and giving him a kiss on the cheek before warning him not to let Sirius work on the engine of his bike whilst she was out and disapparating.

When she had gone, James sat still for a couple of minutes. Really he had no choice but to write to Lily now. His mother would do it later for him if he didn't and he knew Lily would be less freaked out if the invitation came in his hand writing. He sighed, picked up the snitch that had landed on the table moment ago and stood up to head to his father's old study to write this damn letter. Besides, who knew? She could have plans on Saturday.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! :) Review if you want to but if you don't I promise I won't be offended. Thank you to my reviewers so far! Courtney, Awesomemeee and Wilma27! Thanks you guys! :)**

**Next update will be on the 16th of May and hopefully that'll be a couple of chapters or so :)**

**Galindaba**


	5. Chapter 4

**Hey people! :)**

**So this is chapter four. I'm giving you chapters four and five today because, well, I've finished them and they must be read! :D However, my next update will actually be in a couple weeks rather that just one and I'm starting my new job next week and I have to go through training and such. I will try, however, to attempt an early update but I thought if I left it at a couple weeks just in case then nobody get annoyed :p**

**Anyway, sorry about that and here is Chapter Four!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter Four**

'So how was it?' Alice Prewett asked her friend, I suppose you could call her her _best_ friend, Lily Evans. They hadn't always been close. Really it was only in the last year or so of Hogwarts that they started to become as close as they were now, and even that wasn't that close. It wasn't 'marauder' close but it did for the pair of them just fine.

Over their seven years at Hogwarts, a lot of things had changed within their friendship group. There were five of them in the dormitory they had been allocated for their time at Hogwarts; Emmeline Vance, Mary McDonald, Hestia Jones, Alice and Lily. In their very first years at Hogwarts they were a loose group, Emmeline being closer to Lily and Alice being closer to the other two girls. But as they grew older, things switched around and, by their sixth year, Mary had found other friends, Lily and Hestia were almost sisters and Alice and Emmeline were inseparable. But then again, sisters fight and fall out and everything is inseparable until it's separated. Everything that they had found in their six years at Hogwarts so far, all their building foundations and friendships started to fall to pieces in their hands.

Emmeline and Alice were the first to go their separate ways. Emmeline was a girl very much into divination and put a lot of stock into predictions and prophecies. She had planned to travel the world researching more into the ancient art of divination and, as far as Alice was aware, she was doing that now. It was Emmeline's blind faith in divination combined with Alice's stubbornness and unwillingness to believe anything she had no solid proof on was what had torn them apart. Alice too had taken divination but had no real belief in it, only having taken it as Emmeline had. So one divination lesson where Emmeline had read Alice's future, telling her that her boyfriend, Frank Longbottom, was cheating on her, sent them into an argument. Alice didn't believe it but Emmeline had insisted it was true. Neither girl would change their mind and Alice had ended up storming out of the lesson and ranting to Lily about it all. Emmeline didn't speak to Alice much after that and Alice, who started hanging around with Lily and Hestia, didn't speak to her either. The only time they really spoke afterwards was when Alice apologised to Emmeline for their fall out. And that wasn't particularly a long conversation as Mary McDonald, who Emmeline had turned to when she and Alice fell out, had already started to drag Emmeline up to the dormitory half way through Alice's apology.

Emmeline had been wrong though. Alice's boyfriend hadn't cheated on her. He wouldn't. He was the one for Alice, she was sure. But Hestia's boyfriend of the time however, had. And if you put it under a microscope, tried to pinpoint the moment things in Lily's and Hestia's relationship started to go sour, then that would be it. Before that had happened, Hestia Jones had been a very happy go lucky girl. She had fairy-tale romantic aspirations and was completely obsessed with nail polish. And even though she was one of the biggest gossips you would ever meet, she could keep the odd secret. Lily would have trusted her with her life. But all good things must come to an end right?

At the time that Hestia's boyfriend had cheated on her, Lily had just developed a liking for James Potter and, until this moment, Hestia had always been trying to help get them together. She had even told James how Lily felt about him when Lily had asked her not to, all in the interest of a future relationship between the pair. But when Hestia's boyfriend, Matthew Davies had cheated on her, he had broken her heart, spirit and any essence of romance that she had in her. She had turned to Lily after this and had told her point blank that it was probably for the best that she and James had never gotten things sorted between them because they were just a disaster waiting to happen. She had told Lily to just give up hope on it because it just wouldn't work out, they head nothing in common, forget it. And when Hestia had told Lily this, Lily had seen her reasons. Lily knew that Hestia was probably right but couldn't get over the way she had fallen for James. So, in their seventh year, when James and Lily did start dating, Lily had done her best to hide it from Hestia, fearing an argument over the fact that she hadn't listened to her advice. As it was, when Hestia did find out, (after unknowingly setting Lily up with someone else), she was fine, happy even. She helped them out in hiding their affair. Things should have been fine after that but they continued to crumble; slowly then all at once.

Hestia had seemed to be returning to herself, even getting another boyfriend named Sean McEvoy who just so happened to be best friends with Joshua Hunt, with whom Hestia had tried to set Lily up with. She had helped give reasons to Joshua for Lily's disinterest in him whilst James and Lily's relationship was still private and had also helped to settle him when he, (and the rest of the school thanks to Severus Snape), had found out they were dating. Hestia had only to step up her commitment of friendship to Lily when her own boyfriend, Sean McEvoy, had overheard them and Alice speaking about a drunken kiss Lily had had with Sirius Black over Christmas when she had gone to stay with James. After Hestia had realised that Sean had told Joshua and the pair of them had spread the news that Lily was a cheater, (which wasn't true if you knew the backstory), she had broken up with him. She said she would never choose her boyfriend over her best friend and she _knew _Lily would have done the same before. But nobody can know everything.

After that, Hestia and Lily had seemed fine, only really having a drama over Lily's birthday party. That had involved Alice and James as well so it wasn't really an argument between them. Lily would have gone along with it – even though she wasn't particularly a party person – if Alice hadn't been a good friend to her and asked her what _her_ opinion was on what Hestia was planning for her party, revealing that Lily wasn't too keen on the theme; a traditional English tea party. Hestia was irritated with that but it didn't make a difference really. She continued with planning the party. And things would have been fine if James hadn't come to speak to her about it all. He had tried to get her to cancel the party because he knew Lily didn't really want it but, as Hestia wouldn't budge, they made a compromise. That was how James had turned the party into a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory theme, spiking the chocolate with a potion that turned anyone who ate it orange with green hair; Oompa-Loompas. To James and Lily, it completed the party based on Lily's favourite book and film but, to Hestia, everything was ruined. She wasn't happy.

Again though, that was only one real drama. They had spent the spring term in harmony otherwise. Hestia and Lily were happy in their friendship group, the one with the marauders and Alice and Frank. They really would have no complaints. Everybody got along, even when Sirius had had a bit of a problem with Lily. Nothing really stuck out to the group as something major that needed fixing. It was only when Lily had started to become suspicious that James was keeping a secret from her, a bigger one than the one he had revealed to her about Severus Snape cursing him, that things fell apart for good. It seemed that there was nothing wrong until this.

When Lily had shared her suspicions with Alice and Hestia, both girls had a different approach. Hestia said to keep bugging him until he told her and Alice had advised to just let it go. Boys needed their secrets just as much as girls did. Lily tried both but neither worked for her so she started to give James the silent treatment, a childish move which she did begin to regret. But just as she had resolved to stop it, James had asked to speak to her in private. He led her down to the shrieking shack and, having asked for permission from his friends, revealed to her that Remus was a werewolf and that he, Sirius and Peter were illegal animagi. He had shown her it was true and she was shocked. She had almost broken up with him on the spot but he begged her to go away and think about it before she did. He asked only one thing of her, not to tell anyone. But Lily had just learnt something incredible and was trying to figure it out. She was talking to herself about it, still in shock, when Hestia had walked into the room and overheard Lily's ramblings about Remus, but not about the boys. Realising that Hestia had heard her thoughts, Lily raced after her only to find her in the common room confronting Remus about his lycanthropy. Unfortunately, Hestia was one of the many in the wizarding world who was prejudice towards someone with Remus' condition. This was when things broke down for good. It came down to a contest of morals.

Hestia had turned to Lily when they both found themselves in their dormitory later and had tried to sooth her, as any good friend would do. She told her that breaking up with James was the best thing for her as he and his friends had knowingly put her in danger for years. They couldn't be trusted. Remus was a werewolf. It was disgusting. It would have been good to hear if it was what Lily was thinking. But it wasn't. Remus wasn't disgusting. The prejudice was unfound. And Lily had realised at this point that she loved James and she didn't want things to be over, even though he wasn't speaking to her at that moment in time. When Lily had voiced this though, Hestia hadn't seen reason and had given Lily an ultimatum; she could either go out with James and lose her friendship or dump James and move on with Hestia by her side as a shoulder to cry on. Unable to make the decision, Lily let Hestia believe what she wanted though still not giving up on James. When Hestia figured this out she was furious. She had told Lily that if she needed time to think things through than all she had to do was ask. She gave Lily a few days to decide but, for her, Lily made the wrong choice. They weren't friends after that. And Hestia became somewhat of a loner, her attitude and constant anger keeping anyone from getting close to her.

Alice had stuck by Lily. She didn't know of Remus' condition so to her, Hestia's anger and ultimatum were uncalled for. She didn't like what Hestia had forced her to do; choose between her best friend and her boyfriend. And she didn't like the fact that if Lily and Hestia spoke after they had fallen out, Hestia would just throw the fact that she had dumped Sean McEvoy for Lily's friendship when that decision was hers to make. Hestia had become cold and cruel, not even a ghost of the girl she used to be. So out of the five in the dormitory, the ones who had been close at the beginning, three groups had emerged; Emmeline and Mary, Hestia on her own, and Lily and Alice. They all knew the fickleness of friendship so, determined to keep their friendship strong, Lily and Alice decided to stay in contact after Hogwarts and meet up at least once a week. Last week they had had a sleepover at Alice's. This week, they were sat in muggle London, in a little café in Covent Garden that Lily just adored and wanted to show Alice.

They were sat by a large window in peeling brown leather chairs, two cups of tea on the small table between them, and in conversation about Lily's recent dinner with James and his mum; Jane Potter.

'It was…uncomfortable.' Lily said, choosing her words carefully in answer to Alice's question.

'Yikes.' Alice deadpanned, leaning forwards and picking up her china bone tea cup, sipping the warm liquid inside. She could see why Lily loved this place so much. The tea was the best she had ever tasted and, even though the chairs were old, they were extremely comfortable. Plus, thanks to their seats at the window, you could sit all day and just watch the muggles mill around in their day to day lives.

'Well it was at the beginning anyway.' Lily corrected herself. Her meal with the Potters had been a bit painful to sit through at the beginning. But she assumed that meeting your boyfriend's mother wasn't supposed to be comparable to a pleasant walk in Hyde Park.

'I'd actually be surprised if it wasn't, to be honest.' Alice said, 'When I met Franks mum…oh good Merlin. It was like watching paint dry.'

'Really?' Lily laughed.

'She tried to take me shopping afterwards, just me and her so we could bond.' Alice explained, putting her tea down on the table and leaning forwards to Lily a bit to whisper dramatically, 'And if you saw how she dressed…'

Lily laughed again. 'That bad, huh?'

'She bought a hat with a falcon on it!' Alice exclaimed, relaxing into her chair again. 'Apparently she has a huge collection of hats with birds on them.' Alice gave a visible shudder.

Lily grinned at her. 'Ok.' she said, holding her hands up, 'Yours is worse!'

'Thank you!' Alice smiled, bowing her head as if she had won an award or was welcoming applause.

'But at least you didn't have Sirius making insinuations all the way through though.' Lily pointed out, picking up her own cup of tea and taking a sip.

'Oh no! He didn't?' Alice asked with a 'you're kidding me?' expression, 'In that case I think we might be even.'

Lily shrugged and put her cup of tea down.

'What did he say?' Alice wondered.

Lily held back her blush. Even thinking over all the insinuations that Sirius had made caused her cheeks to go pink but she had been getting better at trying to stop this from happening. She just had to breathe deeply and try her hardest to think of something else. She did this now when she told Alice just one of the things he had said.

'I think one of the worst was when was buttering a piece of bread and he said, 'I like to spread it all over, spread it wide. I bet you know a bit about doing that don't you Lily.''

Alice muffled her laughter as Lily hung her head and hid her face with her deep red hair. She could control the blush sometimes but other times she just had to hide it.

'What did you do?' Alice queried.

'Same as what I'm doing now.' Lily answered through her hair. She looked up through her eyelashes but all she could see was a sleek curtain of deep red. Alice was hidden behind it. She could still hear the laughter in her voice.

'Aw Lily I wouldn't worry about it.' Alice said kindly, getting Lily to look up.

'It was in front of his mum!' she exclaimed.

Alice gave another little laugh before looking around her, seeing if there were any eavesdroppers. When she was satisfied that there weren't, she leant forwards to Lily as she had done before and whispered in a curious tone, 'You haven't have you?'

Lily knew exactly what she meant and shook her head. 'I don't think I would have been as embarrassed if I had.' she said back, her voice automatically dropping to Alice's level.

Alice nodded in understanding. Sex wasn't as embarrassing to talk about once you had actually done it. At least it wasn't for her. 'Do you want to?' she pried.

Lily thought for a second. Did she want to? Did she want to have sex with James? Well, why would she be in a relationship with his if that wasn't one of the inevitable goals? If she didn't think it would ever happen then their relationship could be compared to that of her and Peter for goodness sakes. She didn't want a purely plutonic relationship with James forever otherwise they may as well be considered as 'just friends'. So obviously, she did want to at some point. She just wasn't sure when that would be.

She nodded in answer to Alice's question who, for some unconscious reason, nodded back.

'I just…' Lily began, once more thinking of her words carefully as she seemed to be doing a lot lately. 'I don't get why it has to be such a big deal.' she said with a bit of a sigh.

'Who knows,' Alice started as she picked up her tea once more, 'it might not be.' she winked, as bad with the insinuations as Sirius was on Saturday. Why he couldn't have sat quietly and just eaten his dinner like Remus had, Lily would never know.

Lily rolled her eyes and quickly changed the subject. 'So you applied for the auror training programme?' she said. When she had stayed round Alice's, the pair of them had started to talk about the fact that, even though neither of them had shown no interest in it before leaving Hogwarts, Alice and Frank had applied for the auror training programme on a whim. They had been called down to dinner by Alice's mum before they could really get into a conversation and had forgotten about it by the time they had finished eating. When Lily had returned home, she had remembered and had been meaning to ask about it the next time they met up. That was today.

'Change of subject!' Alice pointed out. She went with it though. She knew that Lily was in that place where talking about sex or anything related to it was just uncomfortable for her. She started to talk about the auror training programme to placate her. 'Yeah we applied for it. But I highly doubt we'll get in.'

'Why?' Lily asked, astounded by Alice's lack of confidence in this endeavour. 'I think you'll make a great auror!'

'Maybe, yeah. But I didn't take potions.' Alice said, 'Neither did Frank.'

'Oh yeah.' Lily sighed. She had forgotten that out of all the students in her year, only four Gryffindors had elected to take potions; herself, James, Remus and Sirius. Not many people were keen on the subject, tired of Professor Slughorn's favouritism and the rest just didn't get the marks. 'I forgot you needed that.' she went on, 'Why apply if you don't have it then?'

'Well,' Alice started, her tea cup still in her hand. She swilled the rest of the liquid around in the bottom of her cup. 'We just thought that the world is in such a state, what with you-know-who and all, and it's bound to just get worse, that maybe they'd be desperate enough to make exceptions.'

'Do you think they will?' Lily questioned.

'Maybe. Who knows?' Alice shrugged drinking the last dregs of her tea and staring at the tea leaves that rested at the bottom afterwards. 'When you're in a war, you rally as many people who want to fight as possible. And I want to fight.'

* * *

In one of the many outhouses on the Potter's grounds was a motorcycle. It was resting on a floor of old newspapers, nearly all of which had large smears of oil across them, covering up anything that might have been a good read. It was rather large, able to fit two people onto the smooth leather seat easily, and it had a rather unique look to it. There was no logo on it so you could tell it hadn't been bought from a dealership however, if you were going to compare it to something on the market, the closest comparison you could find would be the R75/5 model from BMW. It had a very similar design with a two cylinder engine and a double cradle steel frame only it was considerably bigger in size. That was mostly down to the fact that this motorcycle was being built by hand by a boy who knew practically nothing about constructing such a vehicle, (and was also using enlargement charms to ensure it was the biggest, baddest bike out there). Still, remarkably he had put it together rather well and it was almost complete.

In just over a year, Sirius had managed to assemble a vehicle which, if it was taken for the proper tests - MOT and such – was roadworthy. From reading instruction manuals and researching the general field of motorcycles, he had managed to build a four-stroke, boxer engine that had a cable operated throttle, was air-cooled and attached to a longitudinal mount. He had managed to install a carburetor to supply fuel, rear twin shock suspension, a dry, single plate, cable operated clutch and a manual four-speed gear box. It could go from zero to one hundred miles per hour in just six and a half seconds and had a kick stand to support it when stationary. Sirius could tell you every part of this bike, inside and out. It was his baby. It had consumed his life and his mind since he had received the parts and manual from the Potters for Christmas the year before last. He had worked on it at every available moment with various inputs of help from James and Remus. But neither of them cared about it the way he did. To them, and anyone else who saw it, it was just a very large black bike…without a light bar. He was doing that now.

He sat on the floor of the outhouse, amongst the oil stained newspapers in oil stained jeans, his legs crossed. He wore a plain, barely white t-shirt that was caked in grime, dirt and almost a year's worth of sweat. His usually pristinely styled hair had a bit of a flick to it, probably from the heat that summer was bringing their way. Sweat was beading on his forehead and, every once in a while, he would wipe it off with the back of his hand. His handsome face was screwed up into a frown and he was staring at the front of his bike, the light bar in his hands. From the work bench at the side of the outhouse, James stood reading the instructions out to him.

'Place the lightbar bracket through the wires.' James said in a bored voice. He was leaning against the splintering worktop in similarly oil stained jeans and a thin grey t-shirt which hung off his toned body with ease. He had a small paper booklet in his left hand, his right hand between Lily's bare knees.

Lily was sitting on the wooden side in a pretty white dress with a blue floral pattern across it. It was a thin cotton summer dress. She had thought she was going out to lunch with James so had dressed for the occasion; a summer picnic, a walk through the park somewhere. What she hadn't predicted was sitting in a stuffy outhouse for most of the afternoon, listening to her boyfriend read the same line of instruction seven times whilst Sirius attempted to carry out the action. It was a little bit tedious and, considering the weather and the fact that she and James hadn't seen each other for almost a week and a half now, it was also highly frustrating.

'Dude!' Sirius said in a slightly agitated tone, 'Which wires are you on about here? I have lots of wires and I've put this bloody thing through each of them about twenty times each. It would help if you were more specific.'

'I can't be more specific Sirius!' James replied, his teeth gritted. They had had this argument not ten minutes ago, the fifth time he had read the instruction to him. 'I can be as specific as what I am reading. It may come as a bit of a surprise to you but I don't actually know anything about motor bikes!'

Sirius glared at him for a split second and scowled. He then sighed and turned back to his bike, not bothering to retort with any smart arse comment. Namely because he couldn't think of one. He tried to put the bracket in place a few more times, determined to try and get this done today. He had only a few things left to work on and, if he got the lightbar connected and the lights all in place, he could be done the next day. Then the only obstacle he would have to get over was finding a way to make it fly. And learning how to ride it of course but he just assumed he would pick that up easily. It was nothing to worry about.

'Where's Remus?' Lily asked, wondering if she might be able to go and find him and keep him company. It would probably be a lot more exciting than listening to James and Sirius go over the same conversation over and over again.

'Why?' James replied, not particularly paying attention but rather flicking slowly through the instruction leaflet to see if he had missed anything that could help Sirius with the lightbar and perhaps put an end to their bickering.

'So I can go find him?' she said, as if her question had an obvious connotation. Which, to be fair, it did. She was quite plainly asking where Remus was.

'Why?' James repeated, still flicking through the instruction leaflet.

'Because-'

'Ah ha!' James said, patting Lily's knee once in triumph before standing up straight and walking over to where Sirius was sat. He crouched down next to him and shoved the instructions under his nose. 'Does this help?' he asked.

Sirius looked at the leaflet, looked up at James, back to the leaflet, over to the front of his bike, and then back at the leaflet again. He frowned and rolled his eyes. As he put the lightbar in his lap and sorted through the wires at the front of his bike, he said, 'You know this would have been a big help like ten minutes ago.'

James stared at him blankly for a few seconds before slapping him around the back of the head. 'Don't be smart.' he said, 'That's my job.'

Sirius laughed, the frustration of not being able to fix his lightbar to his bike gone now that James had found a diagram of how to do it. All he had needed to do was cross the turn signal wires and place it through them before fixing it behind the frame holes. If he had been brought up around motor vehicles as muggles were, he probably would have been able to figure it all out a lot sooner and without the help of the diagram. The words James had been reading to him would have been enough to help him figure it out. Then again, Sirius had always been a visual person so maybe it wouldn't have made too much of a difference.

Lily sat on the side still, drawing circles on the worktop with her fingers, careful not to get splinters in them. She sighed audibly.

'What's up Lily?' Sirius asked her, now picking up a screw and a bolt from a set of two that were on a little plastic bag on the floor next to him. He put the screw through the bottom of a hole near where he had just placed the lightbar and started to screw the bolt on the top by hand so that it wouldn't fall out.

'I just didn't think this was what I was going to be doing today.' she said, looking over to James with raised eyebrows. He looked back at her apologetically but it didn't make her feel any better.

'D'ya think you were gonna be doing James instead?' Sirius snickered, earning himself another smack around the back of the head by James. 'You were thinking it.' he mumbled in return to this action.

'Ahem.' a voice came from behind them, alerting the three of them to the presence of someone else just outside the open doors of the outhouse.

James looked over his shoulder, still crouching next to Sirius, and saw his mother. She was once again in her healers robes, the only outfit he ever really saw her in anymore. The last time he remembered her wearing anything else was when Lily had come to dinner a week and a half ago. That was an awkward occasion he didn't really want to linger over. Especially as this was the first time his mum had seen her since then. It was going to be awkward again and better to focus on what was happening now rather than what had happened then.

'Hey mum.' he said, standing up to face her, his back now to Lily. He folded his arms, almost defensively.

'Could you do me a favour please?' she asked him, looking at her watch to make sure she had a couple minutes spare to talk to him. She did. Just.

'Yeah sure.' James replied.

'Could you go to Slug and Jiggers either today or tomorrow and get me a few things?' she said, knowing the answer should be yes.

'What kind of things?' James said with a slight grimace. He had hoped not to step foot in that shop for at least another few weeks for that would be when he would be starting his auror training programme. And he knew he would be starting it. He was assured a place really. He was smart and talented, almost guaranteed to get great grades in his N.E.W.T's and if that wasn't enough, his dad had been an auror. And a brilliant one at that. The auror department would expect nothing less from him.

'Just the ingredients for a Vitamix Potion. There's a list on the kitchen counter.' she said offhandedly as if it was no big deal.

'Why do you need a Vitamix potion?' James wondered, frowning. 'Are you ok?'

Jane gave her son a placating smile. 'I'm fine James, don't worry.' she appeased, 'It's just with all the hours I'm working lately I feel an extra boost of energy would do me good.'

James didn't look convinced and looked over his shoulder to see Lily give him a small shrug. It wasn't a big deal.

'Ok.' James replied cautiously. It was nothing to worry about but Jane was the only family he had left and, ever since his dad died, he had actually been worried about losing her too. He was sure it wouldn't happen for a long time. She was only sixty-one and, although in the muggle world that was rather old for a parent, (Jane had believed she was unable to have children until James came along in her early forties), it was still a young age in the wizarding world. So James predicted he would be at least a few years younger than her until she passed.

'Lily dear,' Jane said turning to Lily.

Lily sat up straight on the counter and stopped drawing circles on the counter. This being only the third time she had met James' mother, the first two not being that great for a good first impression, she was determined to prove that James couldn't be dating a politer and kinder girl. 'Yes Mrs Potter?' she said.

'Suck up.' Sirius snorted, earning himself a swift but subtle kick from James which he just laughed off.

'Please, call me Jane, Lily.' Jane corrected her, ignoring Sirius' comment. 'I was wondering if you were free on Friday?'

'I think so, yes.' Lily replied, thinking over her plans in her head. It was Wednesday today. She was going to help her dad paint Petunia's old room tomorrow but she assumed that wouldn't take longer than one day. And even if it did, she was sure here dad wouldn't stop her from visiting James' mum, no matter what his problems with James were.

'Well, I was wondering if you would like to go to lunch with me?' Jane said, 'It would only be in my lunch hour from work but I've taken it unpaid so there's less of a chance of me being called back.'

'Mum-' James started to say.

'Yeah that would be lovely.' Lily said, cutting him off so that he wouldn't make an excuse for her. She wasn't exactly enthralled with the idea of an uncomfortable hour alone with James' mum where she could ask any sort of question about their relationship but, it was only an hour. And she did want James' mum to like her. It would be a lot easier to achieve a good impression without James around. Or Sirius for that matter. He was the one who had made their dinner a week and a half ago rather uncomfortable.

'Brilliant.' Jane smiled at her. 'Well I've got to shoot off now so I'll see you tomorrow boys and I'll see you on Friday Lily. Bye.'

'Bye.' James, Sirius and Lily said all together in farewell to Mrs Potter who apparated on the spot with a swift turn.

James looked at where she had stood for a few seconds before turning around and looking at Lily. She was still sat upright, her deep red hair falling over her shoulders.

'You don't have to go you know.' he stated, obviously referring to the lunch his mother had just asked her too. He didn't really want her to go himself and felt that his mum had sort of forced it on her a little bit.

'I know.' Lily said, 'I want to though.'

'Why?' James asked, confused as to what had possessed Lily to say a genuine yes to his mother's suggestion. He walked over to her and stood in front of her, parting her legs so he could stand in between and lean his stomach against the worktop she was on. He put his left hand around her waist and his right under her knee and pulled her towards him so that they were closer, face to face.

'Because you don't get on with my dad.' Lily said, allowing him to drag her towards him. He had done it gently and, amazingly, she hadn't gotten any splinters from the action.

'Actually he doesn't get on with me.' James pointed out looking into her eyes, 'I have no problem with him.'

'Still,' Lily said placing her hands on his chest, the thin grey fabric of his t-shirt creasing slightly under her touch, 'It would be helpful if your mum liked me. That way things won't be as awkward as they are when you come to mine when I come here.'

'I haven't been to yours yet.' James said, a smirk growing on his face as his right hand travelled from behind Lily's knee up her thigh, just under her dress. 'I've never even been in your room.'

Lily looked down to her knees and, taking one hand off of his chest, she stopped his hand with her own, preventing him from traveling any further under her dress. She looked up at him through her lashes and the pair stared at each other for a heated few seconds, both breathing deeply, before Lily looked away. She removed herself from their position, manoeuvring herself elegantly around James and focusing her attention on Sirius who was oblivious to the moment she and James had just had.

'So do you actually know how to ride a bike?' she asked him, smoothing down her dress and briefly glancing back at James who was now leaning on the worktop and staring at her in such a way she felt rather nervous. And all of a sudden completely aware of her body.

She suddenly realised that most of her legs were on show, the dress she was wearing only coming to just above her knees. It was also a halter neck dress so her shoulders and quite a bit of her back was on show too. And she was now very aware that she wasn't wearing a bra. Her dress had hidden support so she hadn't needed one but she now felt a little bit exposed even though she was completely covered up. She felt as if she was naked but she wasn't. Her heart was speeding up and beating rather loudly. She could swear it was audible. Her breathing started to become a little bit heavy. She could feel James' gaze burning through her. She felt very hot.

'I don't need to know how to ride a bike.' Sirius said, taking no notice of the sudden rise in tension between James and Lily. If he had noticed he probably would have left the room. Or stayed just to make things even more awkward. It would have depended on what mood he was in; good friend or annoying idiot. 'It's gonna fly. I just need to know how to ride a broom which I do. Fantastically, by the way.'

'How are you going to make it fly?' Lily wondered, trying her upmost not to look over at James again.

'Dunno yet.' Sirius shrugged, fiddling with a couple of turn signals and attempting to figure out how they fixed onto the lightbar via the instruction manual James had left open on the floor. 'Remus said he'll try and figure out a way as soon as I'm finished.'

'And if he can't?' Lily queried.

'Then I learn how to ride a bike.' Sirius said, 'Duh.' He shook his head at Lily's question and put the turn signals into his lap. He picked up the instruction manual and studied it with a scowl.

The room went quiet. Lily looked back at James. He was still staring at her. She had no idea how he could have gone from paying barely any attention to her to giving her attention by the bucket load, staring at her as if she was the only person in the world to him. The look he was giving her was unlike any he had before. And she found she rather liked that look.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	6. Chapter 5

**And here is Chapter Five! It has a lovely dose of Severus at the end! :[**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter Five**

When Friday came around, Lily nervously went to St. Mungo's wizarding hospital to meet Jane Potter for lunch. She was rather anxious about it all, being alone with James' mother for an hour. What if they found nothing to talk about? What if it ended up being a very uncomfortable, _silent _lunch where all you could hear was the sound of them both chewing? And then what if she ended up getting something stuck in her teeth and because they weren't talking and Jane didn't know how to point it out without sounding rude or critical? This lunch was going to be a nightmare, she was convinced of it. She had talked herself into her paranoia and she didn't think that there was any way of talking herself out of it. She just had to hope that it wouldn't actually be as bad as she was imagining it to be.

She sat in the crowded fifth floor visitor's tea room on a table for two in the corner. The noise was almost deafening. Jane Potter had sent her a note this morning asking her to wait there for her at one o'clock as that was when her lunch hour started. Lily had arrived five minutes early just to make sure she was on time. She didn't think it would look too good if she was late. She sat with her legs crossed, her ankle jittering up and down nervously whilst she wrung her hands together. She was wearing deep blue blouse with a small denim skirt because she had wanted to look smart but casual at the same time. But now she feared that she was starting to sweat from nerves and it was soaking through her shirt. She hoped not but she subtly tried to check it wasn't happening. Unfortunately for her, Jane Potter took that moment to bustle over.

'Ah Lily dear, there you are!' Jane said as she reached the table. She was carefully carrying a rather large cup of tea in her hand. It was all she was going to have for her lunch break today, having to always be prepared for the slightest possibility that she could be called back, (even though she had taken this hour unpaid to avoid that happening). It was always good to be prepared though and besides, she didn't feel very hungry today anyway.

Lily shot up to standing, trying her hardest to hide her flush of embarrassment and praying that Jane hadn't seen her trying to discreetly check for sweat stains. 'Hi.' she said, feeling as if she should offer her hand for a hand shake but then realising that that was just stupid. It was like she was treating this as an interview when it was anything but. She needed to relax. It wasn't that big a deal; just lunch with her boyfriend's mum.

Jane sat down in the seat opposite Lily, (Lily sitting down too), and apologised for being just a couple of minutes late. 'I'm sorry I'm a little bit late.' Jane said, settling herself down on the wooden chair that was standard for the visitors tea room, 'It's been rather busy here today.' She placed her cup of tea down and popped two little sugar cubes into it from the pot on the table.

'Anything unusual?' Lily asked, a little bit curiously. Something could have happened pertaining to Voldemort and his efforts to try and take over the wizarding world or it could just be how St. Mungos was on a Friday. Either way she wanted to know. If something was happening with Voldemort then she was at higher risk than most thanks to her blood status and, if it was just day to day activities at the wizarding hospital, then she wanted to know that too. After all, in just a couple of short weeks she would find out whether or not she had earned a spot in the healer training programme that was run here.

'Not really.' Jane said, brushing it away. She felt her forehead feeling as if she was about to have a hot flush but it passed and she carried on. 'This is normal for a Friday. It seems that people like to pick this particular day to do silly things and clog up the hospital. I've just finished treating a man who decided it would be a bright idea to stick a fake moustache onto himself using a permanent sticking charm, (apparently he couldn't grow one himself), only to find out that he was rather severely allergic to the black cat hair his wife had made it from.'

Lily raised her hand to her mouth to try and smother a giggle. It didn't work and a bubble of laughter escaped her lips.

Jane looked up at her, the beginnings of a smile on her face, and stirred the cup of tea she had brought with her with her wand until all the sugar was dissolved. 'You can laugh dear.' Jane said to Lily, realising she was doing her hardest not to let a giggle escape, 'If you want to be a healer in this place you have to learn to laugh at certain cases.'

Lily squashed her giggles even so and looked down to her hands. She was wringing them anxiously again.

'Would you like anything to drink, dear?' Jane asked her kindly, 'My treat.'

'Oh, no, I'm fine thank you.' Lily said politely, congratulating herself inwardly for being so courteous. She thought she was doing rather well so far. Granted it had only been a couple of minutes but she had asked a question and was being well-mannered. She was pleased with herself, thinking that she had gotten away with how this little lunch adventure was actually making her feel slightly uncomfortable, but really, she wasn't that lucky. And Jane was quite perceptive.

'You're nervous.' she stated, tilting her head as if daring Lily to contest her observation, 'There's no need to be nervous Lily dear. I don't bite.'

'I know.' Lily said straight away, a little bit defensively. She cursed herself internally, thinking she may have come of rude.

'Lily don't be nervous.' Jane laughed, 'I'm sure James has tried to convince you that I'm going to interrogate you about your relationship with him but, believe me, I'm not going to do that.'

Lily paused. James had said that his mother was highly curious about their relationship, him never having brought home a girlfriend before. He had told her to be wary of questions but Lily had just brushed it off at the time. Then she had gotten to thinking and had slowly convinced herself that what James had said could very well be true. But here was Jane herself saying that it wasn't. She was quite confused. If she didn't have a real idea of what to expect before, she had no clue now.

'Really?' she asked cautiously.

'Yes dear.' Jane said, nodding her head kindly. 'Your relationship with him is your own affair.'

'Then,' Lily began, trying to find a way to phrase her question without it sounding impolite, 'why did you invite me to lunch? If you don't mind me asking.'

Jane picked up her cup of tea before answering. 'I just thought it would be nice to get to know you without the boys around. Without James trying to answer all of your questions for you or prevent me asking you any questions which he deems too personal.'

'Too personal?' Lily asked as Jane took a sip of her tea. She wondered what on earth James might consider too personal. After all, for the past two years, they had become very personal, even before they had started dating. Of course, there were things he didn't share to begin with, the whole business with Remus and when Linda, his house elf died, but he had done eventually. He was very private and somethings he did keep to himself, preventing anyone from finding out what these things were by disappearing on occasion. But for Lily, he seemed to open up a bit more. He had told her things of a personal. And she had with him.

'Yes, James has always been a rather private person.' Jane said with a small nod as if backing up her statement with a gesture. 'When he was younger and got upset or mad he would disappear for hours. The first few times it happened we thought he'd run away. I was beside myself. My husband and I would try to find him but, unless he wanted to be found he would stay hidden. We had to give up eventually and just leave him to it. He kept it all private though, whatever he did when he disappeared. He's not too keen on sharing how he feels or certain facts and, when it comes to you I sense it's a no different. He seems rather protective of you.' she went on, giving Lily a rather poignant look.

Lily took a breath as if about to speak but couldn't find any words to say.

'You only have to see the way he reacted to Sirius' insinuations at dinner to know that.' Jane said offhandedly.

Lily gave a small breathless laugh and squashed her hands between her knees, hoping that if she pained them enough, she could stop the blush that she was sure was going to arrive at the mention of Sirius' behaviour over dinner.

'That's another reason why I wanted to have lunch with you.' Jane went on casually.

Lily eyes widened. Her knees, (which she had been pressing together hard against her hands), relaxed, her hands going limp. She was a little in shock at what Jane had just said. What? Not a minute ago she had said that she hadn't invited Lily to lunch with the intention of interrogating her. And yet now, one second or so after mentioning Sirius constant insinuations about James and Lily's sex life, Jane Potter had said that was a reason she wanted to have lunch with her. What was she going to ask?

'What?' Lily asked softly, her voice portraying how suddenly scared she had become.

Jane looked up at her and blinked a couple of times, realising what must have caused her unexpected worry. 'Oh. No dear.' Jane said, trying to put Lily's mind at ease. She had taken her words in the wrong context. 'I don't mean that's why I've asked you to have lunch with me.' She smiled kindly and shook her head reassuringly. 'I'm not the slightest bit interested what you two do together, whether you're sleeping together or not.'

Lily's eyes, if it was possible, got wider and there was no hiding her blush anymore. She hadn't expected Jane Potter to be so open.

'You're both old enough and daft enough to do what you want.' Jane went on, paying no heed to Lily's quickly flushing face, 'And besides, I highly doubt me forbidding it would have any effect. You're going to do what you're going to do and, so long as you're both careful, I have no cause to intrude in that part of your lives and James would probably kill me if I asked. It's completely your business with him.'

'Uh huh.' Lily responded, unable to form any real words. She felt very uncomfortable and awkward and yet, at the same time, she felt completely at ease. Sure her parents had always encouraged her to be open with how she felt but she highly doubted that you would catch them having a conversation such as this. The only conversation she had had that even remotely came close to this was when her dad had confronted her in the kitchen last Christmas, and that wasn't one which she wanted to relive.

Instead of being cool about the idea of James and Lily being together, treating her like a sensible adult that could make her own decisions, her dad had demanded Lily do nothing of the sort with James, (he really didn't like him). So Lily, doing what any teenager would do, went to James' house and had tried to do exactly the opposite of what her dad had ordered. Thankfully, James was a gentleman and had swayed her off it. He had been lovely to her and had stopped her doing something which he knew she wasn't ready for at the time. That wasn't to say she wouldn't ever be ready. That wasn't to say she wasn't ready _now_. Anyway, Lily just couldn't believe how nonchalant Jane Potter was about this subject.

'What I had meant was, what I had hoped,' Jane went on, brushing over what Lily was obviously not to comfortable discussing with her, 'was to get to know you without Sirius making any comments about it all.'

'Yeah.' Lily said, knowing nothing else she could say.

'I just think that, as its most likely you and James will spend time over at our place, it would be nicer, and a little less awkward, if you and I knew each other a bit better.' Jane said.

'Yeah.' Lily repeated.

'Especially because of the circumstances that we initially met under.' Jane pointed out, picking up her tea again and having a sip.

'Yeah I…' Lily began, sighing as she found her words, 'I didn't really want to meet you like that. I wasn't exactly showing my best colours.'

'I wouldn't worry about it dear.' Jane said comfortingly, 'It wasn't a choice but we have a chance to make a fresh start and get to know each other a bit better so I say we take it.'

'Definitely.' Lily smiled, finally beginning to relax.

'Brilliant. Now dear,' Jane said, now satisfied that Lily was comfortable. She made the offer again. 'Would you like a drink?'

Lily agreed. 'Yes, please.'

* * *

Severus Snape walked out of Cobb and Webb's, a dark arts shop down Knockturn Alley. It was much more his speed. He had just finished an interview with the shops manager and was pretty sure that he had received the job. He needed it. Ideally he would have dedicated all of his time to Voldemort and being a death eater. It was what he believed in and what he wanted to do, but there was no money in it. He wasn't like most of the other death eaters. He wasn't from a pureblood family with old money, someone who could just waste their life by living off of their family's wealth, never needing to get a job. He had none of that. So to live, to eat, buy potions ingredients and just have his own money in general, he needed a job.

Severus had been picky though. He didn't just want any job. He didn't want to be scooping out ice-cream to mudbloods at Florean Fortescue's and he didn't want to be cleaning the faeces that the owls dropped in the post office. He wanted something he was going to enjoy, something he could get something out of and, perhaps most of all, something related to the dark arts, no matter how remotely that may be. With this in mind he had actually only gone into shops down Knockturn Alley and only three had said they were hiring; Mr Mulpeppers Apothecary, Cobb and Webb's and Moribund's.

He had gone for his first interview a few days before hand at Moribund's. Moribund's was a small corner shop, closeted in cobwebs and dust. It was lit by a floating orange ball of light which rested on an ornate flat chandelier in the middle of the room. It hardly did any good in aiding a customer to see the contents of the shop, but they needn't be able to really. The shop floor was more like an office. There were a few chairs for customers to sit on and a desk which two shop assistant, (hopefully one of which would be Severus), manned at all times. To buy anything from Moribund's, you had to know what you wanted, and you had to request it off of the shop assistant. If they had it, then one of the shop assistants would disappear behind a deep green, dusty velvet curtain to find it. The shop sold mostly spell books and potion books, those that any self-respecting witch or wizard would avoid where possible. Books which had been banned by the Ministry but were still in secret existence behind that curtain. Of course, there were more than books sold there; quills that withdrew the authors blood as ink when writing, ink that forced the writer to do whatever they had written, (whether that be fetch groceries or killing themselves), and parchment which stung to the touch of anybody who's name was not upon it, burning the victims hands to such a degree, a trip to St Mungo's would be necessary.

Severus had interviewed there, behind that velvet curtain, and had shown a keen interest in the spell books. Moribund had seemed very impressed when Severus said he had created a couple of his own spells. He had become particularly interested when Severus had explained his favourite spell of his own creation; _sectumsempra. _But not wanting to divulge too much on his inventions Severus had moved on to speak about his skills in charms and the dark arts, complaining that Hogwarts only offered a _Defence_ Against the Dark Arts class. Moribund had liked his comment about that and had gone on to call it an injustice. He seemed to like him and said that, after he had seen the other applicants that week, he would send word with an owl to Severus, depicting whether or not he had gotten the job. Severus had left with a handshake.

A couple of days later, he had interviews for jobs at both Cobb and Webb's and Mr Mulpeppers Apothecary. Cobb and Webb's were looking for a shop assistant like Moribund's, and Mulpeppers was for a potioneer who would be able to brew the potions the shop sold already made. He wasn't sure which one he would enjoy more, his love for the dark arts levelling his skill at making potions, so he went into each with an open mind. Cobb and Webb's was first. It was the interview he had just finished.

It was probably one of the largest shops down Knockturn Alley and drummed up a good business with many regular cliental. It was also probably one of the most open shops down Knockturn Alley, unashamed of what it was selling and displaying it all nicely. It was still rather dingy inside though. Its main rival was Borgin and Burkes which was very similar in shop philosophy. There were shelves of dark arts related objects floating half way up the walls running around pretty much the entire shop with only with display cabinets interrupting them every few feet. There were stock cupboards which came to hip height running around the shop in the same manner as the shelves, dark arts displays upon the top of them, all arranged in a pleasing visual manner. There were several round tables dotted around the floor space of the shop, cluttered with objects ready for sale, some of them demonstrating purposes; a rope that repeatedly tied itself into a noose and a whirring enemy detector which spun around every twenty minutes and let of a loud reverberating ding to show what it would do if an enemy entered your home. Towards the back of the shop was the service counter which also doubled up as a glass display cabinet for some of the pricier items. There was a door behind the counter which only led out into a small back room where the staff would rest in their lunch breaks. It was here where Severus was interviewed by Webb.

He was asked about his knowledge of the dark arts, of which Severus made it very clear he had an abundance of, and asked to identify some of the more trickier objects that Cobb and Webb's sold; a blade which stored the victim's blood in the handle after stabbing and a hat which caused the wearers brain to become infected with a slow and unnoticeable mental disorder which would ultimately end up in their moving to a permanent residence in St Mungo's. Severus did rather well but he couldn't really say that he enjoyed the interview, not as much as Moribund's. He found it a rather strict and boring environment to be in and couldn't help but think it was probably ten times worse to work in an atmosphere like this. If he didn't get either of the other two jobs he had applied for then he would take it but he desperately hoped he didn't have to. He left feeling deflated and just hoping that the owl that was supposed to arrive in a few days to inform him of Webb's decision got lost or was struck by lightning. Either would do.

He left Cobb and Webb's at around twenty to one, still having another twenty minutes to kill before his next interview. He passed the time by nipping round to the main street of Diagon Alley, making his way quickly to Sugarplums Sweets Shop to pick up a couple of liquorice wands with what little money he had managed to steal from his mother's purse. He bought two of them and stayed in the shop until he had finished one of them so he could shoplift another without drawing any sort of obvious attention. After he left the shop, he hung around the entrance, leaning against the crumbling brick wall moodily and watching the people in the street. Mostly he was sneering at them, assuming that none of them were supporters of Voldemort and were all frightened little rats who scurried about in their days, scared that something might happen as the death eaters hadn't done anything that the community would consider bad in at least five days. But that was because they had other plans.

Whilst he stood there, a little part of him hoped that he might catch a glimpse of Lily Evans. Of course, he had no way of knowing whether she was actually in Diagon Alley as he hadn't see her since they left Hogwarts weeks ago, but it was a feeble hope of his that perhaps he was destined to see her out and about. It was a foolish wish and often lead to him seeing flashes of dark red hair or hearing her voice. However, he had realised early on that all of that was in his head. No, he had to get used to the idea that he may never see her again. He may never see her until there was a bounty on her head for her blood status. The next time he faced her she may very well be dead and, although he hated the thought, he had to get used to the fact it could be true. It never stopped him hoping that he may see her on the off chance though; in normal circumstances.

He finished his liquorice wand and pushed himself off of the wall with his shoulder and then, (upon not being able to do so properly), with his hands, moving his feet backwards so as he was standing. He spat on the floor in front of the door to Sugarplums Sweets Shop, earning himself a disapproving glare from an older witch with two small children with curly blonde hair. He sneered at her and pushed past her children roughly, earning himself another glare, as he made his way back to Knockturn Alley. He walked down the brick stairs that lead into the street with his hands in his pockets, the same slump in his walk that he had in his shoulders. He let out a sigh as he walked to the shop he now had an interview at: Mr Mulpeppers Apothecary. It had a sister shop in Diagon Alley but the one in Knockturn Alley was much more his speed. Still, he wasn't sure if he wanted a job in potions and so that was the reason behind his deep 'if I have to' breath as he pulled down the door handle and stepped into the shop.

It was, again, a dingy little shop which was hidden amongst one of the thin winding streets that made Knockturn Alley far larger than it seemed. It was in the middle of the terrace and, when inside, you realised that the walls leant slightly to the left. It was a tiny shop with pewter cauldrons and copper pots running around the shop from either side of the door to the service counter at the back of the room. They were piled up inside one another to where, ordinarily, a ceiling would be. Instead, halfway up the wall, a balcony jutted out of the walls, about a foot in width, running all the way around the shop. There were shelves built into the walls up there with rows upon rows of assorted potion ingredients on them. They went from the balcony to the ceiling there were the only potion ingredients on display in the shop. A ladder was the only visible way to get up to this balcony and it was placed behind the counter, just in front of a burgundy black satin curtain. As in the other shops, Severus had interviewed behind this curtain.

He hadn't been looking forward to this interview. The only reason he had really applied was because he had an extraordinary skill at potion making and did always like the feeling of being better at something than someone else. Making potions to sell for those who were obviously too inadequate at the skill to make them themselves would be rather satisfying but he had set his eye on something a bit more involved with the dark arts. What he hadn't expected, was to enjoy it as much as he had. It was less of an interview and more of a chance for the Mulpeppers store owner to see what he could do. He watched him make a Bloodroot Potion which would cause the drinkers blood to be infected with a deadly virus. He had never made it before but still, brewed it to such accuracy that Mulpepper had given him a congratulatory nod after testing it on a rat which paled immediately and became slow-moving, affected to an extreme by the poison. After this, Mulpepper had all but guaranteed Severus the job and said he would be in contact with him within a few days.

Now finished with all his interviews, he was made his way out of Knockturn Alley to meet Wilkes. Anyone who would see the two boys meeting up would probably just assume that they were friends from Hogwarts, getting together to do nothing more than hang out. But Wilkes was the last person in the world that Severus would want to hang out with. Well, one of the last. There were a few people who would top the list before him but he was still pretty high up there. He was a little slow sometimes in grasping ideas and plans, something which Severus didn't particularly have the patience for. He was slightly taller than him too and, often without thinking about it, loomed over him when in one of his blunders, his brown mop of hair falling over his face as if styled in a backwards mullet. Wilkes had also decided that, since leaving Hogwarts, he would try to grow a beard. It didn't suit him and if it wasn't embarrassing for him, it was embarrassing for anyone who dared to be seen with him.

Severus wouldn't want to meet up with him for social reasons, nor any of the Slytherins from Hogwarts. He had no want nor need to invest in a friendship with them, ever only buying into the friendship concept for Lily and look how that had turned out. He didn't believe friendship was the way to go with his fellow Slytherins from Hogwarts. They believed in the same ideals, yes, but that didn't give him an unexplainable need to go and buy friendship bracelets or anything of the sort. It did make for a good colleague relationship but nothing more. He had wanted nothing more from them in Hogwarts and he wanted nothing more from them outside of Hogwarts. No, Severus was meeting up with Wilkes for business purposes.

He had been instructed by Voldemort at the last little meeting of the death eaters, (and it had been little), to find out the meaning of the word Marsket. It had been found written on the file which Lucius Malfoy had forced the Minister of Magic's former assistant to snoop in by ways of the imperius curse. The curse was lifted before Lucius could extract all of the information from him but he had managed to inform Voldemort and the rest of the death eaters gathered that day that the word was a name. Whoever possessed this name was somehow linked to the muggle Prime Minister and Severus had been assigned the task of finding out how this was so. He wasn't told exactly why he needed to find out this information, not being privy to that yet, but he did know that it was all linked into a larger plan that Voldemort wanted to put in motion. And apparently, this was the type of plan that would need time, dedication and, above all, research. And research was something that Severus just so happened to be good at.

So he had arranged today to be the day he did that research. His allocated partner in all of this, Wilkes, was to meet him outside the Leaky Cauldron where they would head down into Muggle London together on their way to the Ministry. Once they had gotten in, (through the rather disgusting way of toilet transportation), they would use whatever means they needed to break into three offices in the building; the Ministers, the records office and the head aurors office. Their only instruction in this work, from Voldemort himself, was to be discreet. He had been very insistent on that which was why Severus had decided to do this task in the afternoon rather than breaking in at night. There would be many people around and many distractions. He would be able to slip in unnoticed because, after all, these witches and wizard were far too engrossed in their own work and lives to notice two seemingly harmless boys wandering around. And it wasn't as if they could be accused of breaking in after hours.

Severus made his way down Diagon Alley and through the swarming crowds. He had no idea why it was so busy. Hogwarts letters wouldn't arrive to students for a few days, (N.E.W.T grades arriving at the same time for those who had graduated), so it obviously had nothing to do with shopping for school supplies. All he could think of was whether there was a sale at one of the shops or whether there was a Quidditch game on that day. Lots of people often stopped off in Diagon Alley before a Quidditch game to buy snacks or paraphernalia. Either way, Severus didn't care too much for the crowd.

He squeezed past a couple of older wizards in long dusty robes, talking far louder than they needed to, and once again saw the woman who had grimaced at him outside the sweet shop earlier. He spat on the floor again, just to tick her off once more which he did successfully, and carried on down the cobbled pathway. He quickly hurried passed Madam Malkin's robes and dodged past a couple sat outside Rosa Lee Teabag's, kissing intensely, but outside of the Magical Menagarie, he lost his steam ending up bumping shoulders with someone.

'Watch it!' he spat at them, not bothering to care that he had actually hurt who he had bumped into. But to be honest, he wouldn't have cared anyway.

He had bumped into Remus Lupin, fresh and tender from a full moon, but looking a lot finer than he had done at Hogwarts, owing to the fact that James' mum had bought him some new clothes. 'Sorry Snape.' he said, noticing it was him.

Severus scowled at him muttering, 'Filthy werewolf' as he shoved his hands into his pockets, shoulders slightly hunched and walked away.

It was just his look to run into one of the marauders on a day he was supposed to be doing something important, on a day he couldn't allow him mind to wonder to places he wish he didn't know. Bumping into Remus would have a knock on effect and he would immediately start to think of the other three boys he despised. He would hate them in his head, wondering over all the things that they had done to him during their Hogwarts education. Then he would stop on James Potter because he was the one who had bullied him most of all, jealous of Severus' past friendship with Lily. And then his brain would stick to the one subject: Lily. He would be hard set to get his mind off of her after that, becoming lost in his memories, but he tried his hardest and attempted to move past it as he focused on the task he had been set.

He saw Wilkes outside of the Leaky Cauldron, his patchy beard filling out a little bit, the stubble look covering a large portion of his squashed face. He nodded at Severus when he approached him and then looked around suspiciously as if he were afraid of being caught with him. It was something which caused Severus to roll his eyes. He didn't particularly want nor need Wilkes' help but nonetheless he had it. He had to make use of him somehow, (for it was his assignment and he would be the one to complete it). Wilkes could probably stand guard and warn Severus if someone was coming whilst he snooped through files. But that was all Severus was planning on letting him do.

The two boys set of through the Leaky Cauldron and into muggle London on their way to the toilets which served as the entrance to the Ministry. If Severus had had access to a fireplace connected to the floo network which he could use for this purpose, he would have used it in an instant. It was much more appealing than flushing yourself down a toilet and it would be less stressful as well. He would just be able to get there in a flash. He wouldn't have to act like he belonged or worry if Wilkes was acting like he belonged too. Being caught wouldn't be too much of an issue really as the security around that entrance was rather lapse, a large oversight by the ministry considering the delicate climate of the wizarding world. It made it easier for the two boys to get in but Severus still had doubts they wouldn't be able to. He wished he could apparate into the Ministry but for some bizarre reason, they had rules against that. If they tried they would be apprehended immediately and their task would be left unfulfilled. The toilets were their only way in.

When they reached them, both Wilkes and Severus went into separate cubicles and flushed themselves down. Neither had said a word on the journey there, not even a cursory greeting as they had met. Severus didn't want to talk to Wilkes and Wilkes wasn't really keen on the idea either. So the first time they spoke was when they arrived simultaneously in the ministry, fresh from the flush. Wilkes was the first to break the quiet between them. He needed to know what to do.

'So what's the plan?' he asked Severus as they made their way through the hustle bustle of the main floor of the underground building. They were heading towards the lifts.

'We have to hit the records office, the Ministers office and the head of the auror departments office.' Severus murmured to him, 'I'll go into the offices and you'll stand guard.'

'Why do I have to stand guard?' Wilkes snapped mutedly, 'I'm just a big a part of this as you are. My dedication is just as strong.'

'I was given this assignment, not you.' Severus retorted.

'We were both-'

'No.' Severus growled, stopping and turning to face Wilkes. They had reached the atrium which was rounded and filled with grate covered lifts. The everyday working life of the ministry hurried past them, taking no notice of their conversation, taking no notice of them, and just carrying on with their jobs and errands

'No.' Severus repeated, 'I was part of this a lot longer than you were. I was recruited first and I am far more loyal than you will ever be.'

'Recruitment time doesn't count.' Wilkes said through gritted teeth, anger upon his face.

'I think it does.' Severus hissed, 'I have been at this much longer than you have. You may be the same age as me, you may even be as loyal as you say, but I was given this task. And by the Dark Lord himself. You were given the task of assisting me. If you don't want to do that then you can go. I'm sure that that will show the loyalty you're so desperate to display.' he finished sarcastically, testing Wilkes and assessing his reaction.

Wilkes steadied his gaze and frowned moodily at Severus. He seemed to be having an internal battle with himself, his growing beard twitching with his decision. 'Fine.' he answered measuredly doing his best to stay calm. He wouldn't be the one to disappoint Voldemort. And if there research came up fruitless then he wouldn't be the one to blame. Or at least it would be proportionally less.

The pair of them stepped into an open lift which was hardly full. There was a wizard with an auburn robe on, reading the daily prophet with a serious look on his face. There was a woman with a sour expression and a kingfisher robe, clutching a matching purse in one hand and a small child's hand in the other. The child, a little girl, was crying, snot dribbling down his face, mingling with her tears. Then there were owls, holding memos and letters ready to deliver, perching on the rails that ran around the top of the lift. There was one sat just above the crying child who seemed to be that way because the bird had released itself onto the little girls shoulder. Severus gritted his teeth and bared the unbelievably annoying and jolted trip in the lift to the floor of the Ministry which housed both the records office and the Minister of Magic's office.

When he and Wilkes got out of the elevator, the other three people in there to engrossed in either the paper or being in foul moods to notice or care which floor they had exited on, they made a plan. Severus was going to sneak into the records office first and snoop through those files first. If anyone was in there, they would take whatever measures they needed to allow them to complete their task. If their search was unfruitful in there, they would move onto the Minister of Magic's office and rummage through the files in there, once again taking the necessary precautions that would permit them to get the job done. They would only head down to the head aurors office if it was needed as it was less likely that the information they were looking for would be in there.

They made their way down a long corridor, plastered in cream, and to a wooden door with a plaque labelling it 'records'. Severus tried the handle and discovered it was locked. He withdrew his wand from his black robes and looked down either side of the hallway. When he was sure nobody was coming, he whispered _alohamora _and unlocked the door. Then he turned to Wilkes.

'Put a disillusionment charm on yourself and try to blend into the wall.' he instructed in a whisper, 'If anyone comes, knock on the door. As soon as they come in the room, I'll stun them. Then you need to get them out the way quickly and go back to stand guard. Got it?'

'So I follow them in?' Wilkes clarified, with grimace, not happy with the mediocre part he was to play in all this.

'Yes.' Severus replied through gritted teeth.

Begrudgingly, Wilkes accepted the plan and cast a disillusionment charm on himself, camouflage pouring over him like slow running milk. As soon as he was placed strategically against the wall, Severus took one last precautionary glance around the hallway before opening the door and slipping inside. When he saw what greeted him, he deflated and rolled his eyes in an irritated fashion.

The room was huge. Large wooden cases stretched down the length of it, arranged in twelve aisles across the room. The shelves of files reached the ceiling and from first glance, there seemed to be no clear organisational system. It would take forever to go through each file if he couldn't find out how it was all arranged. He looked around him to see if there was any indication of strategy but saw nothing that could help him out. He did the first thing that came to his mind that might help him and attempted to summon the file he was looking for, the one containing the information about Marsket, whoever that was, but nothing happened. After that unsuccessful idea, he had no choice but to start searching by hand; a long and tedious task.

He was in the records room for a grand total of three hours and come up completely empty. Six times Wilkes had peered around the door to see if Severus was finished and all six times, Severus sent out a stunning curse at him, something they had planned if someone entered the room. Thankfully, nobody else had decided to enter the room during the lengthy search that Severus had undertaken so he hadn't sent the spell out to anyone else but Wilkes. And after the second time it had happened, Wilkes had learnt to duck the spell.

Severus exited the room with an irritated grimace and paper cuts on his hands from leafing through countless unorganised files. He wasn't in the mood anymore and just wanted to get this task over and done with. He huffed and scowled as he told Wilkes that they were now going to the Minister of Magic's office. When Wilkes asked if they were to wait until the Ministers assistant went on her six o'clock break, Severus' hand twitched towards his wand and he had to restrain himself from intentionally cursing him. It took all of his effort to calmly tell him that there would be no need for that and that they would place the girl under the imperius curse. If she resisted then they would just knock her out. Wilkes seemed to be ok with that plan as it gave him a bigger role than just to keep guard. So the pair of them made their way down the cream coated hallway and up to the grandest door in the corridor, each eager in their own way to get started. When they reached it, they both repeated their suspicious glancing around the hallway before hurriedly opening the door and entering the office, alarming the girl inside.

'Hey what are you-'

'_Imperio.' _Wilkes said immediately, casting the unforgivable curse at the brunette girl, her face quickly relaxing into submission. 'What now?' he asked Severus.

Severus rolled his eyes at what he viewed as incompetence from Wilkes. He looked around the little room, one which was clearly a small foyer for visitors to wait before meeting with the Minister of Magic in his main office which, presumably, was behind the second door. He grabbed a chair from a line of four against the wall facing the secretary's desk and jammed it underneath the handle on the Ministers door. He repeated this with the door they had entered from and ensured that both were inoperable. Then he turned to the girl.

'Where are the files kept in this place?' he asked her.

Wilkes told her to answer Severus which she did gladly, the effects of the imperius curse making sure she was unable to make her own decisions.

'Behind the painting.' she answered almost robotically, gesturing to the painting which was hung behind her desk.

Severus walked over to it and yanked it roughly off of its hook to reveal four large drawers embedded into the wall behind it. Each drawer was labelled with letters of the alphabet, listing whether the files inside were organised A to G, H to N and so on. He opened the draw with the label H to N and yanked it out. It slid out about a foot and then stopped, only revealing files organised under H. Severus triple checked to make sure this was the case before turning to the girl and demanding that she reveal the M files to him. After minimal persuasion from Wilkes, the brunette waved her wand over the draw. All the H files were miraculously replaced with files organised in M. Severus began his search.

He started at the back and began to work his way forwards but, after realising that even the sub-sectioned folders were organised alphabetically, he switched to flicking through the ones at the front. That was when he made real progress. Within minutes he had found a file titled 'Marsket -[Confidential]'. He pulled it out of the draw, quickly swiped papers and quills and things off of the secretary's desk and slapped the file down onto the table. He then opened it and looked inside, skimming the file until he found what he was looking for. And he found it all. Marsket was not just a name. Marsket was a family. A wizarding family with the most insignificant and obscurely crucial link to the muggle prime minister. It was golden blackmail material.

* * *

**Thank you for reading!**

**Review if you like but you don't have to.**

**My next update will be on 30th May 2014. I shall try to do an earlier one but I can't promise anything as my writing time will be cut down owing to the fact that I have to be a grown up and work for the summer :( Oh well.**

**Galindaba**


	7. Chapter 6

**Hey people! :)**

**So this is my 30th of May update :) been settling into my new work schedule and I think it means that I should be able to post chapters regularly over the summer so YAY! :) Hope you enjoy this chapter. I know that a few questions were asked about this when I was writing Five Minutes so this ones for you! (I hope it's not too cheesy! :p )**

**Here we go, Chapter Six**

* * *

**Chapter Six**

'Well I have to be back at mine for nine tomorrow because my dad is having a wardrobe delivered to the house to go into Petunias old room and no one's gonna be there to sign for it meaning, I have to be.' Lily said to James as they made their way across the grounds of the Potter mansion. She didn't tell him that she would also have to sneak into the house because her parents thought she would be back that night. They wouldn't know that she had other plans. All they would know is that she had signed for the wardrobe in the morning and had gotten home just after they went to bed and thought it best not to wake them. She had her lie down. She just had to make it convincing.

It was the hottest day of the summer so far, despite it being the end of August, and the sun was beaming down like fire. However, the sun did make for a nice setting around the grounds and gardens of the mansion, the light brightening the colours of the flowers and making the stream water glisten like diamonds. The fruit in the orchard was ripe and the animals that inhabited the Potters grounds were frolicking like there was no tomorrow. Lily was pushing her old pedal bike - which she had brought with her from home to teach Sirius how to ride - and James was walking next to her with his hands shoved in his pockets as they so often were. Lily was determined that this day not go to waste. She was going to make the best of it. Today would be a special day for her, she was determined of it.

She and James were heading over to the outhouse where Sirius worked on his bike. He apparently had finished it a few days before hand on his birthday. At least, that was what he had told Lily in a thank you reply to the birthday card she had sent him. He told her that until she taught him to ride a bike, he would be spending most of his time admiring his handy work. The one time he had tried to ride it, he fell off, unable to keep his balance or get the motorcycle started at all. So, seeing as Lily had offered once before, he had written to her and asked if she could teach him to ride a bike, hoping that in some way shape or form, it would help him figure out how to ride his own engine powered one.

'So he can shove her in it?' James asked Lily, continuing with the conversation he and Lily had been having as they made their way over to Sirius. He was trying to convince her to stay the night and believed he was failing at it. So instead, James being James, decided to make a few jokes to ease what he thought could become an uncomfortable situation. 'Cause I've got to say, I may not be your sisters biggest fan but locking her in a wardrobe doesn't seem to be the best way to go.' he laughed, running a hand through his messy, slightly sweaty hair before returning it to his pocket.

'What?' Lily wondered, confused for a moment before grasping what James had said as a joke. 'No.' she clarified, 'He's turning Petunias room into a guest room. We painted it the other month. I told you that.'

'What colour?' James asked.

'Huh?' Lily replied, now confused as to what James had turned onto in their conversation.

'What colour did you paint her room?' James said.

'Why?' Lily queried, stopping her bike and grinding to a halt to look at James in curiosity.

James followed suit. 'Just trying to seem interested.' he shrugged.

Lily paused for a second, a small testing smile appearing on her face. 'Cream.' she answered.

'And I'm over it.' James sighed.

They began to walk again. It was on days like this that James wished the gardens to the Potters property were smaller, less of a trek to walk across. He either wished that or that he and Sirius hadn't blown up the outhouse that was closest to the house. They would have been there by now if they hadn't done that, he and Lily having passed by the derelict remains only moment ago. But unfortunately, they had blown it up, a couple of summers ago, and it hadn't been repaired, the consequences of it was this now being a long hike across the grounds to the outhouse where Sirius was waiting for them. They could have apparated if Lily didn't have her bike with her.

He trudged along next to Lily, stealing glances at her as often as he could without losing track of where he was walking. It was extraordinarily hot today and Lily had dressed accordingly; a short but flowing white skirt and a sky blue top that wrapped itself to her flat stomach teasingly. Her hair was braided loosely over her shoulder, the deep red of it shining in the sunlight. If it hadn't been hot outside today, James was sure he would have felt the heat anyway. It took all his energy to stop himself from just standing still and ogling her, his mind drifting to unsavoury places. But, nonetheless, he was doing his best. He still wanted her to stay over though. Little did he know she had already made up her mind on that matter.

'Look, why don't you just stay here tonight and then we can go back to yours in the morning, sign for the wardrobe, shove your sister in it and then go out to lunch.' he suggested with a grin, a mischievous glint in his hazel eyes.

'You do realise that you made up the shoving my sister into a wardrobe thing right.' Lily stated, knowing that if James continued with this train of thought, he would actually convince himself that the suggestion wasn't his and it was an instruction they needed to carry out.

'That mean we can't do it?' James laughed, turning to smile at her.

'No.' Lily said, smiling herself, a playful hint in her expression as she looked him dead in the eyes. 'We can do it.' she insinuated before turning her smile into one of mock innocence and carrying on over to the outhouse which they had just about reached.

James' reply was delayed a little in reaction. His throat had very suddenly gone dry as he thought he picked up on a different proposition in her words. 'What?' he asked hoarsely to no one, still standing where Lily had left him to join Sirius by the brick structure with her push bike. Did he hear her right or was he reading far too much into this? He didn't know. So he shook it off, deciding not to dwell on it, thinking it couldn't possibly be what he thought, and went over to join Sirius and Lily in the outhouse.

When he got there Sirius was stood frowning at the bicycle that Lily had brought with her and flicking the black leather seat unenthusiastically.

'Hey you wanted to learn.' Lily reminded him as he started to sigh disinterestedly.

'I know but…' Sirius trailed off, looking wistfully over to his own bike which stood next to the wall magnificently, a kick stand holding it in place. There was a large presumably once white sheet underneath it. He looked back to Lily's bike which seemed boring in comparison. 'It's small.' He moaned.

'It's a push bike.' Lily pointed out to him.

'I know but-'

'Oh my god Sirius you _have_ to stop saying that!' Lily warned, 'Look, you don't have to learn.'

'I know but…' Sirius said purposefully, his only intention to annoy Lily with a third repeat of those words. 'Fine. How's it gonna help me ride my own bike?'

'Well,' Lily started, looking over to Sirius' huge bike and then back to her little one, 'It'll help you with balance. To ride either of them you're gonna need balance. It'll help you judge weight, distance, timing. Safety on a bike. Learning how to stop using the breaks. Basic-'

'Ok! Ok!' Sirius said, rolling his eyes and taking the bike off of her, wheeling it outside the same way she had wheeled it in, 'I get it. It'll help. Now let's get started.'

Lily shook her head fondly and went to follow Sirius outside only, she was stopped by James. He took her hand and pulled her back into him.

'What did you mean?' he asked her, searching her eyes for recognition, remembrance, anything. His decision not to dwell on what she had said only lasting five minutes. He kind of wanted to know now.

'What do you mean, what did I mean?' Lily asked, knowing exactly what he meant but playing dumb for her own amusement, 'About the bike?'

'No not about the bike.' James said dropping her hand and gripping her top just below her waist, 'Before. When we were talking before. Before.'

'Before what?' Lily queried beginning to laugh at the frustratedly anxious way James was acting after one sentence of powerful suggestion.

James sighed, 'Lily-'

'LILY!' Sirius yelled over to her from about ten yards away, interrupting the couples conversation, 'You gonna teach me or what?'

'I should go teach him.' Lily said softly to James, trying and failing to hide the smile she had on her face in amusement from the way James was acting. She released his hands from her top, smoothed it down and walked over to Sirius.

'For a start you're sitting on it backwards.' James heard her say as she went. When he turned to look at her, she was standing next to Sirius who was sitting on the bike, (the right way now), and supposedly telling him what to do. James couldn't be sure though as he couldn't actually hear her from this distance as she was speaking at a normal volume. He exhaled quickly and leant with his shoulder against the frame of the entrance to the outhouse, his arms folded and legs crossed.

He didn't know why this was playing on his mind so much, that was, apart from the obvious reasons: he was a teenage boy, hormones were raging in his mind, beautiful girlfriend, no parental supervision, (at least for a couple of days), and a huge mansion full of beds. But he had managed to push all of that down for almost a year now because he didn't want to be one of those guys who pushed his girlfriend into doing something she didn't want to. So far he had managed not to do that and be the perfect boyfriend. Even when it seemed like things were heading that way, like during the Christmas break the year before, he had managed to abstain, not give into his desires, and stop what was happening. So he didn't know why now these things had started to bubble to the surface and why he was having such a hard time squashing them again. One little possible insinuation from Lily and his mind and body were acting as if he had been given a green light, raring to go.

He tried to shake it and think of something else. After all, he wasn't even sure if Lily had meant what she had said in the way he had taken it. He had to respect the fact that she still might not be ready. Thinking of something else would be the first way to start. He thought of the fact that their N.E.W.T results were scheduled to be out today and what marks he may have received on his examinations. But somehow, through excitement of good results, his mind wandered back to Lily. So he thought about the auror training programme he had applied for and whether he would be accepted into that. It was rather prestigious. But his mind once again, seemingly in overdrive on the topic, wandered back to Lily. There had to be something he could think about that wouldn't have him returning to that place. It took him a few minutes but he found something to think of, and in this thought, he didn't have to abstain from thinking about Lily altogether.

He pushed himself up from the door frame and walked over to Lily and Sirius. Sirius was looking rather bored and was amusing himself by moving the gears gauge up and down on Lily's bike whilst Lily tried to explain to him the different parts of the bike. She didn't really notice until he rang the bell and even then, she didn't lose where she was in speaking to him, she simply slapped his hand, (which was still on the bell), and carried on.

'...and you make it move by putting your feet on the pedals and-'

'My feet have been on these pedals for the six hours that you've been yammering on for and I've not moved an inch.' Sirius exaggerated, stamping his right foot on the pedal it was resting on.

'Geez you're so dramatic!' Lily laughed.

'I am not dramatic!' Sirius retorted, over emphasising every word before turning to James and asking in a whiny voice, 'I'm not dramatic am I Prongs?'

'Err…yeah. You kinda are.' James replied, shrugging when Sirius looked aghast at him.

'Thanks a lot!' Sirius huffed, turning away from him and folding his arms, his feet on the floor so that he could balance himself on the bike. He was learning very quickly that it wasn't that easy.

'No problem.' James smirked, brushing it to the side so he could ask Lily, 'Hey, how was dinner with my mum the other day. I didn't ask.'

If there was one thing that could keep his mind off of Lily and other things, then this was it. He didn't dare to think about such things in his mums presence and, even though they were just talking about her, (or at least going to be), it still made him think twice before allowing his mind to wonder off. He knew his mum would be rather relaxed around this topic, nothing like Lily had told him her dad was, but it was still a subject you didn't like to broach with your parents. And that stretched from doing, talking or thinking about sex. So speaking about the meal that Jane and Lily had would be a safe subject to keep James focused. He was sure of it.

'Dinner?' Lily asked, placing Sirius' hands on the handle bars properly, making sure they were in the middle of the handles so as to make it easier to steer, 'I didn't have dinner with your mum. Sirius keep your hands in the middle of the bars!'

'I don't want to hold the middle I want to be a rebel and hold the end.' Sirius said stubbornly, moving his hands back to the end of the handle bars, holding them with only his thumb, fore and middle fingers.

'Yeah, well, rebels fall off bikes and die.' Lily said bluntly.

'You're very cheery.' Sirius grumbled, putting his hands back to where Lily had placed them at least three times.

'Well when you're trying to teach an idiot, happiness goes out the window.' Lily quipped quickly. 'Did you mean lunch?' Lily asked James.

'I could do with some lunch.' Sirius piped in.

'It's eleven o'clock.' Lily pointed out.

'So?' Sirius replied.

'Yeah lunch.' James said. Of course it was lunch. It was during Jane Potters lunch break. Just an hour. Still an hour was plenty of time to ask some pretty intense questions. 'How'd it go?' he asked again.

'It was fine.' Lily shrugged with no expansion.

'Did you call me an idiot?' Sirius wondered, Lily's words only just beginning to register to him.

'Yes.' Lily stated. 'Now, I'm gonna hold the bike and walk along side you so that you don't fall off.'

'Ok.' Sirius said, leaning forwards and preparing himself for is first ever bike ride.

'All you've got to do is hold the handle bars straight and move the pedals with your feet.' Lily explained.

'Just fine?' James queried. There had to be more to the story.

'Yeah. It was fine.' Lily repeated to James before turning back to Sirius. She held the bike by the back of the seat and onto one of the handle bars for extra support. She highly doubted she could keep the bike steady and in motion if she didn't for Sirius was a lot heavier than he looked. 'Off you go.' she said to him when she was sure she had hold of his weight.

If Lily expected the bike to move, then she was wrong. It stayed extremely stationary and, if anything, more weight was put into Lily's hands. She was having a hard time holding it up. This was not how this was meant to go and she had to wonder why. Looking down at Sirius' feet, she realised.

'Sirius!' she exasperated, 'You're meant to push the pedals with your feet and make them go round. It's how the bike _moves. _Running up and down on the pedals isn't going to make an ape of a difference.'

'What do apes have to do with it?' Sirius asked, scrunching up his face in question, and placing his feet on the ground again to keep himself from falling off of the bike whilst Lily released her grasp.

'Just pedal the bike properly.' Lily sighed, holding onto the bike again.

'Ok, ok.' Sirius said, rolling his eyes.

'When you say fine…' James chimed in again, folding his arms and trying to get Lily to talk to him instead of paying attention to Sirius who, in James' opinion, would never have a long enough attention span to learn to ride a push bike anyway. He swore he didn't have this much trouble trying to get her to speak to him when she hated him. 'What do you mean?' he continued.

Lily let go of the bike causing Sirius to wobble a bit before steadying himself again.

'Warning would be nice.' Sirius muttered causing Lily to push his head to the side fondly.

'Try and balance on the bike.' she said to him before walking over to James, taking his hand, and leading him back into the little outhouse when Sirius' monstrous bike was still residing. 'What's up?' she asked him with a false innocence about her. She hoped she knew what was wrong with him. She hoped he was still thinking about her comment from only minutes ago. He couldn't have bypassed it too quickly. At least she hoped he couldn't.

'I was just wondering what you and my mum talked about at your lunch.' he said, shoving his hands in his pockets and shrugging his shoulders. He looked like a sullen teenage boy.

'She just wanted to get to know me a bit better so it wouldn't be awkward when I come round.' Lily said.

'Oh.' James said, a little shocked at the answer. He had half expected his mum to drill Lily about their relationship and what was going on between them. To attempt to find out more about their personal life. 'That was it?'

Lily nodded.

'So she didn't ask you if we were…'

'Would it matter?' Lily asked, a smile playing deliciously around her lips.

'Well…' James thought. He couldn't read her expression properly. She was smiling. Did that mean anything or was he making it up in his head? Perhaps he had misjudged what she had said earlier. Maybe he was just creating a double entendre in his mind because that was what he wanted to hear. He had been waiting a whole year. He deserved a medal really. But maybe her comment hadn't really meant anything. And besides, hadn't he started this line of conversation to allow himself to retrieve his mind from the gutter? Wasn't this supposed to be turning his thoughts away from it? If Lily wasn't ready for that step yet then that was fine. He supposed could wait a while longer. Besides, this was confusing him. He didn't like hidden messages or secret meanings. It was frustrating. He answered her question. 'I suppose not. It's not like there's anything to tell.'

'Yet.' Lily added.

Well, now James was completely befuddled. His head was screaming at him to get a clear answer because he didn't think he could deal any more with a possible situation.

'Ok Lily, I'm completely confused.' he confessed, 'You keep saying things that could be double entendres or could have hidden meanings and its really frustrating to me. I'm trying my hardest not to jump to conclusions, conclusions that, to be perfectly honest with you, I've wanted for a long time now. I want to be considerate of you but if I don't know what you mean or where you're at then I can't be. What exactly are you saying? What do you want?'

He was surprised to see her still smiling, almost smirking at her handiwork and the fact that she had confused him to breaking point. And quite quickly as well.

'James,' she said, taking a step towards him. She rested one arm over his shoulder and placed the other on his chest. She could feel his heart racing ten to the dozen beneath his shirt. 'I'm not going to say a word. You can take whatever connotation you want from anything I've said today.' she whispered, her hands grasping his shirt and creasing it beneath her fingers, 'I'll let you decide.' And with that, she stood up on her tips toes, left a lingering kiss on his cheek and walked back over to Sirius who was trying, (and failing) to balance on the bike.

For ten more minutes, James watched Lily struggling to teach Sirius how to ride a bike, witnessing Sirius fall to the ground more than once. However, the spectacle before him wasn't nearly as amusing as it should have been to him. Usually, seeing Lily become rather frustrated was a little funny and familiar to him. It reminded him so much of the times he used to badger her to go out with him in their earlier years of Hogwarts. He liked to remember her from back then and the way she used to become angry at him, calling him names and yelling. Sure when it was happening it rather upset him and for days afterwards he would be depressed that she had once again turned down his offer to take her out, but it was also nice to reminisce on those times and think about how their relationship had evolved so much. It was kind of remarkable really.

Sirius falling over, let alone off of a bike, should have been hilarious for him. He would have usually taken the piss out of him for days on end, re-enacting the scene and telling people about it. It would all be in good fun of course and Sirius himself would have found it rather amusing, loving the attention it gave him and over dramatizing how hurt he was by the whole thing. It would give him an excuse to bandage his arm up or something of the sort and vie for the sympathy vote from girls, attempting to give them ideas on how they could cheer him up. But at the minute, James really didn't feel like laughing at Sirius or telling anyone about his embarrassing failure of falling off a bike.

Instead, for ten straight minutes, James watched Lily. He couldn't help it. She had basically given him the green light, (or at least, she thought he had), and he couldn't help but think of what that meant. For one he would no longer be a virgin, neither would she. But it wouldn't be just sex. They loved each other and James was sure that she was the person he would spend his life with. He was infatuated with her and she would be the only person he would ever be with in that way, he was sure of it. But his predictions, hopes and expectations for this happening, staying in a committed relationship with Lily and eventually marrying her would have to be self-contained. If he ever told his friends, (mainly Sirius), that he had plans to be with Lily forever he would be taken the piss out of for being so soppy. He didn't particularly want that. So he kept it in and let his mind wander to the night until Remus appeared by his side and interrupted his thoughts.

'What you doing?' Remus asked him, following his eye line to Lily and Sirius. He took no notice of the expression on James' face and instead, focused on the spectacle that was before him. 'Oh good Merlin!' he laughed, 'Why didn't you call me? You know I love to see Sirius make an idiot of himself.'

'Ha, yeah.' James croaked, his throat a bit parched, 'Sorry.'

'You all right?' Remus asked, noticing the dryness of James' words and, now, noticing his appearance; a little stunned and not all together with it. He looked in a constant state of shock.

James stroked his throat and nodded his head. 'Yeah I'm fine.' he said, moving his hand from his neck and running it through his hair. 'I'm just a bit thirsty. Gonna go get some water, you want anything?'

'No I'm good.' Remus replied, not believing him. He watched James walk away a little concerned, especially when James kept turning his head back every five minutes as if checking his friends were still there. It was a little odd.

Remus walked over to Lily and Sirius, a laugh escaping his lips when Sirius' foot slipped off of the pedal and scraped the skin down the side of his calf.

'Shit!' Sirius swore, clambering off of the bike and hopping around on one foot in agony. He stopped and looked down at it to see the damage he had done. He noticed an array of small dots of blood creeping to the surface. It was stinging. 'What you laughing at?' he snapped at Remus when he noticed he was there and laughing at him.

'I'm not laughing.' Remus defended, not even attempting to hide the chuckle that was still bubbling in his chest. He ignored Sirius as he pulled a face at him and turned to Lily. 'Is James ok d'ya know?' he asked thinking that, out of all of them at the mansion at the moment, Lily would be the one who would know why James had looked so dumbfounded.

'Why?' Lily asked, folding her arms innocently and looking over to where she had though James was standing. She was disappointed to see he had left. She had felt his eyes boring into her for the best part of ten minutes. It was a surprise then, that she hadn't noticed his disappearance. 'Where'd he go?' she asked.

'Inside to get a drink.' Remus answered. He looked at Lily a little suspiciously. He had a feeling she knew what was wrong with James but was reluctant to tell. It was probably something personal between the two of them though, thought Remus, so he probably shouldn't pry. He changed the subject instead. 'So what you trying to do?'

'Teach the village idiot how to ride a bike.' Lily answered, gesturing over to Sirius who was now lying on the ground with his injured leg in the air, vying for attention. 'It's not going so well.' Lily muttered.

'That's because it's hard!' Sirius whined.

'It can't be that hard.' Remus commented, 'Looks easy.'

'You try it then!' Sirius challenged, sitting up straight but remarkably keeping his leg in the air.

'Fine.' Remus sighed. He walked over to the pedal bike that Sirius had abandoned haphazardly on the grass so that he could be dramatic and picked it up. He studied the bicycle for a good few seconds before nodding to himself and swinging his leg over the frame so that he was straddling the leather seat. Then, he gripped both handle bars determinedly, put one foot on a pedal, put the other foot on the other pedal and, almost in slow motion, fell to the ground. He landed on his side, the bike still between his legs and took a pause before saying 'Ow'.

Sirius burst into peels of loud, over-the-top laughter, his leg obviously better now as he brought it to the ground without thinking. He was slapping his hand against it, beating out his amusement at Remus' fall.

Lily bit her lip, trying so hard to hold in her own giggles. Remus had been so confident about it and, truth be told, she knew he wouldn't be able to do it. Riding a bike wasn't a skill you just had, it had to be taught and nurtured. She should have told him upright that he would have fallen off but, a part of her just wanted to see it happen. It was rather funny. Still, she did her best not to laugh at his misfortune. She steadied her breathing and, instead, just said, 'You know, most muggle children can ride a bike at age seven.'

Sirius had paused when Lily was speaking but, after hearing her words, he began to laugh again and, this time, louder. He laughed until he had laughed so much, that sound was no longer available to him. It took a whack around the back of the head from Lily to try and force him to shut up and even then he just spluttered and smothered his chuckles.

Lily went forwards to help Remus up, putting the bike to one side and taking his hand to drag him to standing. She brushed off the light brown t-shirt that James' mum had obviously kitted him out with along with the blue washed jeans that still had that look of 'store-bought' about them. Now managing to hide her laughter better, (better than Sirius anyway), she made sure he was ok, finding out that he had probably only bruised his hip.

Whilst Lily was picking up the bike and explaining to Remus the basics of riding a bike, just as she had to Sirius earlier, James' small rufus legged owl Sox landed on the ground next to Sirius, placed down a note and flew off. She would have landed on his shoulder but she didn't much like him. Still, she had delivered the note which Sirius picked up instantly, (after kicking the air that Sox had just vacated), and read it, realising it was from James who was just inside the mansion.

He looked up and smirked to himself, enjoying the fact that Lily had gotten Remus onto the bike and was now holding the back whilst he wobbled along in a zigzagged line. It was amusing already but it was about to get better.

'Oh Lily!' Sirius belled, just to catch her attention before reaching the crux of the note from James, 'N.E.W.T results are here!'

Lily took a sharp intake of breath and, letting go of the back of the bike, turned to face Sirius who waved James' note at her. However, no sooner than she had turned away, she heard a dull thud on the grass behind her as Remus lost complete balance and fell to the ground.

Lily winced. 'Sorry.' she said, hurrying to help him up once again. She grabbed his elbow and pulled him up, not particularly being much help as she was shaking the entire time, wracked with nerves over the fact that her N.E.W.T results were waiting in the mansion for her at that very moment. She was excitedly anxious, her entire future in an envelope in the kitchen, something that Remus picked up on. He told her to go ahead and that he was fine and, after literally no persuasion, Lily raced off into the kitchen.

She found James sat at the table studying his own results with a satisfied smirk. He had obviously done well. She saw her own results, the envelope which contained them lying haphazardly in the middle of the table. Fearfully she picked them up and sat down next to him, catching his attention.

'You ok?' he asked her casually.

'No.' Lily replied. 'What did you get?'

'E's in Herbology and Potions and O's in Charms, Defence and Transfiguration.' he replied, folding up the parchment that had his grades written on it, stuffing it back into the envelope and throwing it without any particular care, back into the middle of the table. 'You gonna open yours?'

'Yeah.' Lily whispered.

James paused. 'Today?'

Lily paused herself and looked down at the letter in her hands. Suddenly, she began to ramble, slowly standing up as she did. 'You know I don't think I will. It doesn't seem like a good day to get results. You know what's a good day? Sunday. Sunday is a good day. You have a roast dinner and you get to watch TV. Well, you don't. But living in the muggle world I do and, you know, Sunday TV is kind of crap but it's Sunday TV and you just watch it like it's the best form of entertainment in your life and-'

'Lils.' James said, pulling her back down into her seat and looking at the envelope in her hand, 'Do you want me to open them?'

Lily nodded, unable to speak, and handed the letter over to James who opened it with confidence and no hesitation. She watched him study the piece of parchment he had taken out of the envelope, his eyes darting back and forth as he read her grades to himself.

'Well?' Lily asked anxiously.

James looked up from the letter and smiled at Lily, he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and forced her to look him in the eye by keeping his hand on her cheek. 'You did brilliantly.' he said proudly, 'You got an E in Ancient Runes and O's in everything else. That's brilliant.'

Lily was a little deflated that she hadn't received O's in every subject if she was to be completely honest with herself. But one look in to James' eyes which beamed of adoration and praise and she forgot everything. Without hesitating, she kissed him, James kissing her back gently at first and then with a kind of urgency. He moved his hands to her hips and impelled her up to standing before moving her down to sit his knee, his arms encircling her waist once she was there and holding her into him.

'Geez get a room!' Sirius said in mock disgust as he walked into the kitchen, closely followed by Remus who pushed James' head forwards in a brotherly manner.

James laughed at his friends and pointed out their result letters to them at the same time that he felt Lily coax his hands from around her waist and stand up. He watched her walk round the table and the island in the kitchen to a cupboard which was floating on the wall above the sink. She took out a glass, turned on the tap and filled it with water. She was very quiet; drinking the water in the same amount of time it took Sirius to read his results. A high five from Remus later, she suggested to Sirius that they go back out and try with the bike again. Sirius agreed and James followed her with his eyes until she was out the door and out of sight, releasing the breath he didn't realise he had been holding and looking down at the envelope containing Lily's results. It was still in his hand.

For the rest of the day, Lily and James hardly spoke. Eventually, Sirius and Remus began to think that they had fallen out and so tried their best to get them speaking to each other again. But whenever they did, Lily bristled and hid a faint blush that was trying to creep its way into her cheeks and James laughed it off. Only they knew that the tension between them wasn't caused because of an argument. And it showed, that desire, every time they looked at each other.

In the evening, Jane Potter returned to the house for a brief intermittent minute and had dinner with Lily and the boys. Lily made pleasant conversation with her, spinning off from the lunch they'd had the other day and the things they had spoken about then. She hardly touched her food however. James was the same way. He pushed his peas around the plate, along with his potatoes and in the end, ended up making a smiley face. He was told off by Jane for doing this, as though he was still a six year old, but his apology was the only words he uttered throughout dinner.

In an instant, the evening passed, Jane Potter returned to work the group was left alone again. Night had fallen. The sky was dotted with stars and the moon was a slim slither in the sky, (much to Remus' delight). Sirius and Remus were in the outhouse in the grounds, putting Lily's bike away whilst she went to get a shower. James was sat on the Parisian Opera House inspired staircase that led to the second floor of the mansion, twiddling his thumbs.

He didn't know what to do now. He had never been in a situation like this, at least not one where he felt the same way as the girl who wanted him. At Hogwarts, quite a few girls had offered themselves up to him, especially on Hogsmeade weekends where it wasn't unusual for a couple of students to sneak of somewhere, like the shrieking shack or a room in the Hogs Head, but he had never accepted their offers. Any other boy of his age would have jumped at the chance but not him. He gave off a devil-may-care attitude but when it came down to things like this, James actually had a sense of decency instilled in him. This was what had made it so difficult for him today.

He didn't want Lily to feel pressured. He loved her and he wanted her to remember their first time together for something they had both wanted. He was sure it was going to be amazing and, from how Lily had been acting today, he was sure it was going to be tonight. However, his morals prevented him from just going up stairs and coming onto her or just jumping into the shower whilst she was still in there. He had asked her straight instead of trying to subtly get her to explain what she meant by the things she had been saying today but he didn't receive a clear enough answer to know what to do. The last time this situation had come up was last Christmas and he knew how awkward and embarrassed Lily had been about that after it had happened. He didn't want to set himself up to fail. So he just sat at the bottom of the staircase, on his own, twiddling his thumbs and at a loss of what to do. But fate was about to grace him with a solution.

'Prongs.' Sirius said as he found his best friend at the bottom of the staircase. He carried four envelopes in his hand. Remus followed him, carrying a fifth and a sixth.

'We just got a letter from Wormy.' Remus explained, holding up one of the letters in his hand.

'What's it say?' James asked. He had asked Peter if he had wanted to come over for the day but, as his mother knew that his N.E.W.T results would be in soon, she hadn't allowed him to come. Peter was now a fully-fledged wizard, allowed to do anything by law; fully independent. His mother didn't realise this however and babied the poor boy. James knew it frustrated Peter but there was nothing he could do. He wasn't the bravest when it came to his mum; which begged the question, why was he placed in Gryffindor?

'Says he got an O in DADA, an E in Care of Magical Creatures and A's in the others.' Sirius said before continuing with, 'Meant he didn't get into the auror training programme.' He waved the four envelopes at James.

'Are those…?' James asked, pointing at them.

'Yep.' Sirius said, genuinely exhibiting nervousness, something none of the marauders, (except maybe Peter), did willingly. 'One for me, one for you, one for Moony…' (Remus held up the other letter in his hand) '…and two for Lily. Why does she get two?' Sirius finished.

'She applied for healer and auror training programmes.' James said offhandedly, standing up and taking the two letters with her name on them and the one with his. He shoved Lily's letters into his back pocket and turned his over anxiously in his hands. He looked up to his friends. 'Together?' he asked.

Sirius and Remus nodded and, all at once, the three marauders opened their letters. All of them had the grades to get into the auror training programme.

'I got in!' Sirius grinned.

'Same.' James smirked, a little cockily. He had always believed he would get into the auror training programme. He had the grades and his dad was an auror. It was sort of a given at that stage.

'I didn't.' Remus said folding his letter up and shoving it in his pocket along with his hands. He grimaced and shrugged at his friends who both had apologetic looks upon their faces.

'Sorry mate.' James said, Sirius nodding along with his condolence.

'It's all right.' Remus shrugged again. 'I knew I wouldn't get in. They wouldn't want someone like me.'

'That's-'

'True.' Remus cut in. He sighed. 'It's ok. I'll start looking for a job tomorrow so I can pay for things and-'

'Mate I told you that wasn't an issue.' James said.

'For me it is.' Remus replied, pulling at the lining of the pockets on the new jeans that Mrs Potter had bought him. 'I'll see you in the morning.' he stated with an air of finality.

'Well…' James said, 'I'll go give Lily her letters then. See you in the morning.'

'Night.' Sirius said.

The three boys parted ways, the celebration that would have been, brought down by Remus' rejection letter. Sirius headed to the kitchen to grab some food to take to bed with him. Remus made his way up the stairs, drudgingly, and a moment later, James followed him making his way to the room down one of the hallways that lead off of the balcony where he and Lily were staying for the night. (Sirius had insisted on keeping James' room, forcing the couple to move as Lily didn't want to be sleeping in the same room as him). James paused outside the door and took a deep breath. Slowly he opened the door and walked in.

The room was papered a dark royal blue with deep blue curtains and a mahogany four-post king-sized bed against the wall in the centre. There was matching mahogany furniture, (end tables, bedside tables, a dressing table, a double wardrobe and a large bureau) all set out spaciously in the large room. There was also a window seat filled with plush cushions, a chaise lounge at the foot of the bed and two silk covered deep blue armchairs set in front of the large marble fireplace, above which hung an artistic masterpiece of a secluded forest. The room was far larger than the one that James shared with Sirius and far classier. It was beautiful, the kind of room you'd expect to find upon visiting a foreign palace.

He stood just next to the door and, after locking it, pulled out the two letters which he had taken off of Sirius; the ones addressed to Lily. He stared down at the calligraphy on the envelopes and, even though he knew in his heart of hearts he didn't have to worry, hoped she had received invitations from both training programmes. He only looked up when Lily came out of the en-suite bathroom.

She came into the room brushing her deep red hair, obviously having just used a handy little spell to dry it instantaneously. She stopped attending to her hair upon seeing James and set both her wand and hairbrush down on the dressing table. She looked at the letters in his hand. 'What are those?' she asked, gesturing to them.

James tore his eyes from her. He had gulped rather audibly in his opinion when he had seen her. She was only wearing a grey towel wrapped loosely around her body. He moved his eyes back to the letters, very nervous about the situation, but also, very sure. He was sure.

'Um…Letters from the healer and auror training programmes.' he said, 'Me, Remus and Sirius opened ours downstairs. Me and Sirius got in. Remus and Peter didn't.'

'Oh.' Lily said, approaching James in an almost daze, 'And me?'

'I don't know.' James shrugged, 'You'll have to open them and find out.'

Lily nodded her head and took the letters from his hands. Carefully, she opened the letter from the auror training programme and then immediately, after, opened the one from the healer training programme. That was the one she really wanted. She read it hastily and expressionlessly. It was only when she looked up at James, breathing deeply, that he knew the answer.

'I got in.' she said.

'Yeah?' James replied with an asking grin.

'Yeah.' Lily repeated, astonished. 'I got in. I got in!' she said as she flung her arms around James' neck, hugging him tightly.

James hugged her back, lifting her slightly so that she was stood on the tips of her toes. He pulled back and smiled at her, looking her directly in the eyes. She beamed back at him, happy beyond belief. He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and left his hand on her cheek, looking into her eyes for a couple of moments more before he hesitantly kissed her. She kissed him back, winding her hands into his messy hair, James holding her tightly against him. She moved her hand down to where his t-shirt met his jeans and slid her hand under his top. James deepened their kiss and moved his own hand to where her towel closed to the side of her chest. His hand clasped around the tucked in knot. They both knew where this was heading.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Galindaba**


	8. Chapter 7

**And I couldn't leave you without the morning after so here we are again! Two chapters today, you lucky sods! :p**

**Chapter Seven now!**

* * *

**Chapter Seven**

The light shone through a thin gap in the curtains in the room where Lily and James slept. Lily was the first to wake. She opened her eyes slowly, blinking a couple of times to adjust to the dim light of the room. She looked to the side of her where James was still sleeping, his messy black hair over his eyes, one of his arms folded behind his head and the other, which had been over Lily's waist, now rested on his bare chest where she placed it as she sat up. He looked so peaceful and Lily smiled at him, holding the covers over her chest and thinking about the previous night. She and James had slept together for the first time after receiving news that they had both been accepted into the training programmes they had applied for at the beginning of the summer. It had, in Lily's opinion, been perfect. The right measure of gentleness, urgency, love and heated passion had erupted between them. Lily couldn't have imagined a better way for things to happen.

She looked around the room and took note of the clothes strewn here, there and everywhere. James' top was flung over the arm of the chaise lounge at the bottom of the bed, the towel she had been wearing, (for she had just take a shower when things had started to happened), lie on the floor near the locked door and James' trousers were in a heap next to the bed. She smiled to herself in remembrance. The button on his jeans had been rather hard to undo at that moment in time. It didn't slow them down though. She had managed it eventually and she was glad she had.

The door handle to the room rattled, someone trying to get in. Subconsciously, Lily pulled to covers up further in an attempt to cover herself more, (even though it made no difference), but said nothing in answer to whoever was outside the room. They knocked on the door, waited a couple of seconds and then knocked again. They repeated this after a minute and, after an audible sigh, Lily heard footsteps move away from the door and down the hallway to the balcony. Lily relaxed herself and let the covers drop a bit more. Whoever it was, Sirius, Remus or even Jane Potter, obviously didn't need either herself or James urgently. If they did, they would have yelled or would just come back later. She couldn't say she felt guilty about ignoring them.

A throaty groan next to her alerted her to the fact that James was awake. She looked at him briefly as he tried to open his eyes before turning her head to the painting above the marble fireplace and becoming lost in her imaginings, going over the previous night in her head.

James opened an eye and looked over to where Lily now sat, the bed sheet held up against her chest to cover her front, not that she needed to with him but perhaps it made her feel more comfortable. She didn't cover her back though and so, with reckless abandon, he allowed his eyes to rove over her bare back, her curves and where she sat. Because he didn't have his glasses on his vision was a little blurred but it took nothing away from the general picture of Lily's body. He smirked and tugged, perhaps a little childishly, at the bed sheet she was holding up against her. When she turned her head to look at him, he smirked again. 'Was that a knock at the door?' he asked, feeling no need to ask her if she regretted the fact that, the previous night, he had taken her virginity and then some. He knew she didn't regret it. He knew they had both thought it right. He could tell. They had done it again after recovering for a bit. And again after that. They didn't really go to sleep until about half four that morning.

'Yeah.' Lily nodded her head. She too felt no need to confer and confirm with him that what had happened was right. She knew it had been perfectly fine with him that they had had sex. Even more than fine, she hoped. But still, she felt no need to ensure this fact was true. Besides, she had been throwing out hints all day yesterday, frustrating James to no end. If they hadn't have slept together, then she may have thought he was either extremely stupid or just didn't want her that way. And James wasn't stupid. 'Somebody wants you.' she continued.

'Unless it's you,' James said, pulling her back down onto the bed and into him, 'I don't care. They can wait.'

Lily smiled at him and James at her before pulling her into a kiss, both eager for a repeat of a repeat of the night before.

* * *

'All I'm asking for, Sir, is a chance.' Remus told the owner of the Magical Menagerie down Diagon Alley.

Seeing as Remus did not make it into the auror training programme, he found himself in the unlucky position of having nothing to fill his days with, at least not in the foreseeable future. Neither did Peter. So, the two of them had taken it upon themselves to search for a job. They couldn't very well go into the muggle world, so a mediocre job in a store down Diagon Alley or in Hogsmeade was their only option. They had covered Hogsmeade that morning but to no avail. Madam Rosmerta did say that there was a possibility of needing extra staff closer to Christmas but, at the moment, she had no jobs available. She was the only one who had offered anything substantial though. Only one or two shops were hiring in Hogsmeade but it seemed that, with Remus' condition and Peter's grades, neither of them were viable candidates for anything.

Sirius, who had joined them on this venture seeing as James did not respond to his knocking that morning, (which he should have as Lily was supposed to have gone early that morning and Sirius had knocked at eleven am), tried his hardest to convince Remus not to disclose the fact that he was a werewolf to potential employers. It wasn't that Sirius didn't want people knowing because, if he had his way, the whole world would accept Remus for whom he really was. He didn't care so why should other people? They just had prejudice inbred in them something he knew about all too well as a Black. So it was for this reason Sirius attempted to reason with Remus to keep his condition quiet whilst looking for jobs. But Remus wouldn't listen.

'I need to tell them Sirius.' he had said earlier that day in Madam Puddifoot's teashop where Peter was enquiring about work first, 'It's dishonest if I don't. They need to know who they're hiring.'

'Not straight away though.' Sirius had replied, 'It's just gonna make it harder for you to get a job.'

'I'd rather get a job honestly.' Remus had retorted before walking out of the shop to stand outside in the cool heat of the sun.

Sirius had waited for Peter to fail in his attempts at applying for a job before leaving the teashop to join Remus outside. From there, the three of them had left for Diagon Alley with the thought that perhaps there were some jobs available there. However, when they arrived and began their search, it became increasingly apparent that there were none. Either the position had been filled days ago, Peter grades weren't good enough, Remus was being discriminated against or the shop owners were just feeling rather mean today. It wasn't looking good.

'I'm sorry…Mr Lupin,' the shop owner said, remembering Remus name but using it sparingly, 'I simply can't allow you to work here.'

'I work hard sir, my grades-'

'Your grades are not important to me Mr Lupin.' the manager interrupted, 'I simply cannot hire you. Taking care of these creatures requires full time dedications and whilst your Outstanding in N.E.W.T standard Care of Magical Creatures prompts me to give you a chance, the fact that you are not able to work full time stops you from even applying for the job. Perhaps if you weren't…if the issue wasn't…maybe if-'

'For fuck sake!' Sirius swore, far too angry to tone down his language. His foul mouthing had become more and more obscene since leaving Hogwarts where you would be penalised for using certain words. Of course, he tried not to swear when Jane Potter was present for she didn't particularly like that language and, technically, she was giving him a place to live, food to eat and clothes to wear, but Sirius did believe he was an adult now, under no one's control but his own. If he wanted to swear he would, and at the minute, the shop owner had angered him to such an extent that he just didn't give a damn anymore.

'Who gives a shit if he's a werewolf?' he yelled at the shopkeeper, causing the few customers in the shop to look their way, 'Who cares? He's smarter than any of this idiots in the store- yes I'm talking to you!' he snapped at a mother who gasped loudly at Sirius' rather dramatic display. She hurried her small son, who couldn't be more than five or six, out of the shop whilst Sirius shouted after her, 'Yeah that's right! Run out the shop cause the werewolf is gonna kill you by existing harmlessly and the boy who swears is gonna help him out-'

'Mr Lupin!' the manager said loudly over the top of Sirius' ranting's, 'Please remove your friend from my shop he is discouraging my customers-'

'Oh and we wouldn't want that now would we!' Sirius retorted snidely as Remus sighed and took his arm.

'Come on Sirius.' Remus said disheartened, pulling him away from the shop owner who didn't look very impressed.

'I am so pissed off with this-'

'Sirius! Please.' Remus said quietly and pleadingly to his friend.

Sirius looked at Remus and paused for a good couple of seconds before huffing a sigh and turning to the door. He walked to it and opened it before looking back at the manager who stood with his arms folded and a stern expression, obviously making sure they were leaving. 'Don't think I'm ever coming in here again!' Sirius raged.

'Don't think that _that_ is your choice.' the owner replied, not wanting to ever relive the experience of Sirius Black again.

'You're a pathetic piece of crap.' Sirius sneered at him as he left the shop muttering to himself, (and partly Remus), how unjust this whole situation was.

When Sirius and Remus had left the shop, Peter, who they had not noticed they had left behind, hovered. A shop which Sirius was not liable to ever go in again was a very tempting possibility. He wouldn't have to deal with his friend coming into the shop and putting him off, teasing him if he did something wrong or making him nervous that he wasn't doing things well. There was nothing stopping him from going up to the manager and sweet talking his way into the job. But Peter had never been able to sweet talk his way into anything. The only person he knew who could do that one hundred per cent of the time was James. If James was here, maybe Peter would have asked him to enquire about the job for him. But…no. He wouldn't have actually. He would have been too scared James would have said no. Just like he was too scared now to approach the manager.

Peter sighed and made his way towards the door. He would never be able to do anything like that. Sirius would see it as a betrayal. And if Sirius saw it as a betrayal, so would James, especially if it was over Remus' lycanthropy. Peter couldn't betray his friends like that. He didn't have the guts. Instead, all he could do, was follow them. So when he was out of the shop, he looked both ways down the street to see where Remus and Sirius had gone. He would catch up with them and listen to Sirius rant about how unfair it was that Remus was unable to get a job because of something he couldn't control. He would listen until Remus cut Sirius off and distract him with the offer of some pie. Then they would all go get pie. Then Peter would listen to Sirius rage again, repeating what he had previously ranted about. It was all he could do really; follow and listen.

* * *

In the early afternoon, before James took Lily back home, (though he had tried to convince her to stay another night), he took her out for lunch. They went to the same little diner that they had visited in the summer last year before their seventh year at Hogwarts had begun; the place they went to celebrate their positions as head boy and head girl. It had changed slightly though. The table and chair seating had been almost completely replaced with red leather booths that lined the windowed walls of the diner. The tables that had been kept were squashed together and were small and round with really only enough room for two though at a push more could squeeze on. The counter had shrunk slightly to make way for a large rotating display case of cakes and pies, something which James spotted as soon as they walked in. Above the counter, they had put up a price list of the foods that they served. It had become a bit more high-end and didn't quite have that 'family business' vibe that it's did last time. It obviously didn't seem to matter though as the place was packed, save for a few tables. Another change was that you now had to wait to be seated.

The pair waited at the entrance next to a little podium that had a sign hung on it saying their wait would be five minutes. It was, as a matter of fact, actually less than that. They were stood there for no longer than thirty seconds when a waitress wearing a red dress with a frilly black pinafore, (much different to the blue and white chequered uniform their waitress had worn last time), came to greet them.

'How many?' she asked with a bouncing smile.

James looked between himself and Lily. 'Obviously there's twelve of us.' he said sarcastically.

The girl however, (whose name tag read Rebecca), didn't seem to pick up on James' tone and looked around the diner with a worried face. 'I'm afraid we don't seem to have enough tables available for twelve…' she said, 'It would be at least a forty-five minute wait.'

'He's joking.' Lily told the girl kindly, elbowing James in the ribs for his sarcasm, 'There's only two of us.'

It took Rebecca a couple of seconds to register what Lily had said to her. She looked between the couple until James raised his eyebrows and nodded his head. Then realisation hit her.

'Oh!' she said, her smile wavering as she tittered politely, 'Ha, ha, ha…If you'd like to follow me.'

James rolled his eyes at the girl but nonetheless followed her, along with Lily to a small table for two in the middle of the restaurant in view of the door. When they sat down, Lily ordered two diet cokes, (she had learned not to give James a full sugared coke as he had suddenly became very hyper last time), and two orders of cottage pie and vegetables. When Rosie left, their order jotted down on a tiny little notepad, James looked over to Lily and shook his head.

'Don't be mean.' Lily reprimanded him, 'Sometimes it's hard to tell when you're being sarcastic.'

James thought for a moment. 'No it isn't.' he said.

'Well for some people it is.' Lily said simply whilst James smirked at her. Wanting to move past this as quickly as possible, for really it didn't affect them whether their waitress understood James' sense of humour or not, Lily asked, 'You excited for the auror training programme?'

'Probably nowhere near as excited about it as you are about the healer one.' James said in answer, still smirking, 'I doubt anyone is.'

Lily feigned a hurt shocked expression before going into an excited ramble which, after going out with her for almost a whole year now, and even from just being friends with her the year before that, James was fully expecting from her. It made him chuckle as she went on.

'How can you not be excited? I am so excited for it! It's what I want to do! And this is the first step to getting there. I can't believe I was accepted! I didn't think I would be and it's just so exciting! It's like university for witches and wizards. And at the end of it, I'll be a proper healer, helping people-'

'Having them throw up on you.' James put in.

'Ew come on!' Lily scowled playfully, 'Don't make me give up before I've even started.'

'Highly unlikely.' James replied.

'I wonder what books I'll need.' Lily went on to say, her state almost dreamlike as she imagined the fascinating books on wizarding illnesses that she would have to buy.

'Books?' James questioned, 'You don't need books!'

'Yes you- thank you.' she said politely to Rebecca the waitress as she set down their drinks on the table and informed them that their meals would be out shortly. 'You do need books.' Lily continued when she had gone, her voice lowering a little bit for some unknown reason. 'How do you think you'll learn anything?'

'They'll teach us it?' James said as if it was obvious.

'Yes but how do you think you're going to study for any tests they give you?' Lily pointed out.

'Whoa, whoa, whoa!' James said, sitting up in his seat and opening his arms in question, 'Who said anything about tests? I'm gonna be an auror. Auror's get out into the real world and kick death eater arse. _That's _what I'll be doing. There's no time for tests.'

Lily looked at him in shocked astonishment for a moment wondering how on earth he thought that he was going to get through a three year training programme without reading any extra resource material or taking any tests. 'The first year is theoretical. It did say this on the letter you know.' she mentioned.

James looked confused. 'Did it?'

'Yes!' Lily laughed, but not like it was funny, 'Did you not read your letter?'

'I read the part about me getting in…' James remembered.

'That was the first-'

'Err Lily.' James said, any humour that was in his face draining from it immediately from shock, 'Your parents are here.' He pointed to the door that had just opened and closed as Mr and Mrs Evans walked in; Richard and Heather.

Lily looked around to see her mum and dad standing near the podium where they were waiting to be greeted by a waitress. It was the only way they were going to find a table. Just like James, Lily's humour left her face as she looked at her parents in shock. She thought they were both at work today and so had a hard time believing that they were actually here. Of course, she could see them and her eyes weren't lying to her. She turned around quickly as her father looked her way. She prayed that he hadn't seen her but her luck wasn't usually good. Besides, if he didn't see her, he would see James.

'Did they see us?' she asked James in a hopeful whisper, knowing full well it was in vain. It wasn't two seconds later that she heard her father's voice next to her.

'Lily.' he said, ignoring James as per usual, (he still didn't like him), 'What are you doing here?'

Lily looked up at her dad, trying to smile. Only she couldn't. Suddenly she felt extremely hot under the collar and had the very odd feeling that everybody in the diner at that moment could read her mind. It wasn't a nice feeling. 'Just having some lunch.' she said nervously, a bit of a stammer in her voice which caused James, (who's natural humorous expression had returned), to look at her with a questioning frown. Obviously he had no idea what she was feeling.

'I didn't expect-'

'Richard stop bothering them.' Heather said good naturedly to her husband. 'Hello James.' She greeted him, smiling.

Heather Evans was the complete opposite to Richard when it came to the issue of James. Heather believed James was a lovely boy well suited to her daughter. She rather liked him and trusted him to take care of Lily. Richard Evans however, wouldn't trust James with a blade of grass. All because Lily had once told him horrible stories about James and how he used to pick on Severus Snape. Of course, James had changed his ways, and had done so for Lily, but Richard refused to see that. James found this rather odd in reality as Richard didn't know James until he and Lily started dating. He was literally judging him on past information.

'They've got a table for us Richard.' Heather said, 'Let's leave these two to their dinner and go-'

'We'll sit here.' Richard announced, pulling a spare chare from the table next to Lily and James', the couple who were at with it only glancing over briefly as it was taken away from them.

'I'm sure that Lily and-'

'They don't mind!' Richard interrupted his wife for the second time in just a couple of minutes. It caused her to scowl at him, especially as the next thing he did was challenge James by turning to him and asking him, 'Do you?' directly.

James shook his head slowly, his face showing that he could think of no reasons to say no to Lily's parents on the issue of them joining them for dinner. 'Of course not.' he said politely. 'Here.' he stood up and gestured Heather to the seat, 'You sit here and I'll go find another chair.'

'Thank you James.' Heather said graciously, sitting on James' seat. As he wondered over to a table near there corner booths to see if the empty chairs there were free, she turned to her husband and said, 'Really Richard! Was there any need to do that to the poor boy.' She then looked at Lily, (who was looking nervously uncomfortable), and apologised to her. 'I am sorry to interrupt your lunch Lily.'

Lily just nodded her head briefly before turning to look around for James. He was on his way back now with a chair for himself. He had asked an old couple at the table just across from theirs, interrupting their conversation about muggle politics and how the muggle prime minister had announced recently that he was hoping not going to call a general election as was standard because apparently the private polling data he had received proved that a majority was going to be an unlikely situation. Of course James had no idea what any of this meant so he just took the chair and left, thanking them for their kindness.

'I'm sure this was supposed to be a very lovely date between the two of you.' Heather went on as James arrived back at the table. 'I'm sorry to ruin it.'

'Don't worry about it Mrs Evans.' James smiled winningly at her as he sat down next to Lily. He put his arm around the back of her chair. 'It's really not a big deal. This was just a spur of the moment lunch. You're more than welcome to join us.'

'Are you sure?' Heather asked again.

'Of course he's sure. He's said it about six times already.' Richard said.

'What?' Lily squeaked, mishearing her father.

'I said he's said it's fine around six times.' Richard repeated to his daughter who didn't look convinced that that was what he had actually said. 'Anyway,' Richard went on, 'Did that wardrobe arrive?'

Lily's face fell. She had completely forgotten that she was supposed to go home early that morning to be there for a delivery. Her parents were supposed to be at work and so couldn't do it themselves. She looked at them now and, obviously they weren't at work, but it seemed that they were still unable to wait at home for the delivery earlier that morning for some reason. She mentally smacked herself. She had told James about it the morning before, explaining to him that if she was to stay over she would have to leave early. How could she have forgotten? Of course, she knew how: James. Her mind had been so preoccupied with him last night and this morning again that returning home to wait for a knock on the door had become her last priority.

'I…I…err…' she stammered, unable to look her father in the eye.

'Lily?' James said, placing a reassuring hand on the small of her back. She immediately shrugged it off.

Lily went on. 'I don't know really-'

'What do you mean you don't know?' Richard asked her, his voice booming with a small sense of absurdness. Of course Lily would know if it had arrived. She had been home all night he assumed. Late but still home. Where else could she have been? 'Did you sign for it?' he went on to ask.

Now in reality, Richard was actually speaking rather normally. The volume of his voice was no different than it was usually and his tone was pleasant enough. However, to Lily, he sounded angry and accusatory. It made her anxiously paranoid.

'No.' Lily whispered, starting to draw circles on the table. She felt as if her mind was on display still. 'I didn't get…err…I…this morning I-'

'What were you doing this morning-'

'Nothing!' Lily responded a little too quickly and a little too loudly.

There was a tangible pause at the table. Heather responded immediately in a soft tone asking Lily not to shout so in a restaurant as it was rude. James, concerned for Lily and alarm bells ringing in his ears as it seemed to him Lily was acting oddly, let his hand drop into place reassuringly on her back again. Again, she shrugged it off. Richard frowned suspiciously at Lily, but let it go. He went on to make conversation, doing his best to ignore James as usual but it was hard when he was sitting so close to his precious baby girl. Still, he tried.

'So sweet-pea,' Richard began, taking a menu off of the small stand in the middle of the table and perusing it at leisure, 'What time did you get in last night? We didn't hear you come in.'

James frowned.

'Well, I err…-'

'Why do you keep erring?' Heather questioned. She too was browsing the menu but lowered it slightly to speak to her daughter.

'I don't.' Lily retorted, a bit defensively.

'Well what did you two get up to yesterday evening-'

'Nothing!' Lily snapped in a high-pitched voice, a bit of worry coming through.

Her parents paused to look at each other suspiciously. Then Richard spoke. 'What time did you say you got in last night?'

At that point, James decided to try and help her out, even though he knew her father would bypass his answers and attempts at conversation. Still, he did try because he had watched Lily become very fidgety over the past few minutes and he was sure she was going to get a blister on her finger from where she had been dragging it, drawing circles. He went to answer Richard. 'Actually she stay-'

'Eugah.' Lily vocalised, making a very weird and very un-Lily sound to cut James off with.

Again, there was silence at the table. That was until James broke it. 'Lils can I talk to you outside?' he asked her, though it was more of a demand. He stood up and helped Lily out of her seat before leading her outside of the restaurant, giving a nod to Rebecca the waitress to signify that they would be back in in just a moment and weren't running out on their bill. When they were outside and James was sure that the door was firmly closed, he asked Lily if she was okay.

'I'm fine.' she replied, fiddling with her skin-tight sky blue top and pulling it down so much that she was stretching it. It was the top she had worn yesterday to James'. In fact, her whole outfit was; her short but flowing white skirt and the sky blue top that wrapped itself to her flat stomach teasingly. She should have taken a change of clothes. Suddenly she though that what she was wearing was almost like a big flashing neon sign that shone 'walk of shame'. That was ridiculous though. She wasn't walking anywhere. It was a lunch of shame. She was so paranoid.

'Lils, you're not fine.' James said, shoving his hands in his pockets, 'What's up? What was with all that in there?' he went on, gesturing inside the restaurant with a directional nod of his head.

Lily took a deep breath and folded her arms. She lowered her voice to a whisper. 'He knows.'

James looked lost. 'Knows what?' he asked.

'He _knows_!' she repeated.

'Knows what?' James said in a sarcastic whisper.

Lily grabbed at her top where her arms were folded and tapped her toes nervously. She gave the air of someone who didn't want to be somewhere or didn't want to do something. 'That we had sex.'

James nodded his head. 'Four times.' he commented nonchalantly.

Lily looked at him with a small confused frown. 'What does that have to do with anything?' she asked, not really seeing this as the time to point that out.

James shrugged. 'Just stating the facts.' he muttered.

Lily blinked in disbelief. Again, now was not the time. Not when she thought her dad had somehow found out or he just knew or he could smell it on her or whatever. Not when she felt as if she was on trial. She looked to the ground and tightened the fold in her arms. Her lips were slowly disappearing with anxiousness.

James sighed and took his hands out of his pockets. He took a step towards her and rubbed his hands down her arms in a way of reassurance. 'Look Lils.' he said softly, 'There is no way he knows. He can't. It's not like he has spies at my house just waiting to tell on me for making a move on you.'

Lily looked up at him, her eyes wide in worry. That did sound like her dad really. He was a laugh and good fun but fiercely over protective. And as he didn't like James, it made sense for him not to trust him. But what lengths would he go through to keep James' hands off of her?

'Lily I'm joking!' James chuckled, 'He doesn't even know where I live! Apparently neither of your parents know you spent the night at mine and they won't know that you did, or that we had sex unless we decide to tell them. And I'm pretty sure you don't want to do that.'

'No.' Lily said, a sulky pout appearing on her face. James was right, and she had no idea how in just a few words he had talked her round her paranoia. It was true, her parents didn't know that Lily had spent the night elsewhere or what she had done with her time. And there was no way in hell that they knew where James lived. They knew nothing about it. What part of the country, the fact that it was Wales, hidden from view by spells and enchantments or the fact that it was in actuality a huge mansion rather than a house. She hadn't told them anything about James' wealth you see. Her dad hated him. Her mum liked him. How much money he had was not going to change their opinions of him one bit.

'Should we go back in?' James asked.

'Ok.' Lily replied.

'Are we going to act normally?' he questioned.

Lily paused. 'Bit of a difficult task for you isn't it?'

James smirked at her response before going to the door and opening it for her. She stopped a moment before following and going back into the diner to continue the already uncomfortable meal with her parents. But James was with her. He would back up her little white lies.

* * *

Remus, Sirius and Peter returned to the Potter mansion later that day after a rather unsuccessful trip into town to find Remus and Peter jobs. Remus had not been able to secure so much as an application for a job let alone an interview or one straight off the bat. Apparently for some of them, he had been under qualified which was utter 'bullshit' as Sirius put it. Remus' N.E.W.T grades were in the top one percent for sure. Some of them tried to be polite and decline his services with a standard reply of 'sorry but we filled the position yesterday'. But others were just brutally honest with him and told him what all the other employers were too conservative to say: 'we don't want a werewolf working for us'.

Peter did have a bit of luck in the Magical Menagerie. After he had exited the store in Diagon Alley, begrudgingly resolute on not asking for an application for the shop assistant position that was going there, Remus and Sirius had told him to not be so stupid and forced him to return for one. They told him to never look an opportunity in the eye and miss out on it. He had to be selfish sometimes and do what was best for him, never mind if your friends weren't too happy about it. So he had gone back and gotten the application, acquired Remus' help to fill it out when the three of them went to the Leakey Cauldron for dinner, and handed it in an hour and a half afterwards. He was told that he would hear back from them in about a week if he was successful in getting an interview.

It had been a tiring day. As soon as they had gotten back, they went into James' living room and collapsed on the sofas in there. Sirius had taken over one of the sofas completely, lying across it with his feet on the arm and sloppily eating a pie from a dish on his chest. Remus had taken the other and was in very much the same position as Sirius. The only difference was he didn't have pie. He had chocolate on his chest and a book open on his face, the one Dumbledore had lent him before he had left Hogwarts, (something he was desperate to return to him as soon as possible). And Peter was sitting, not in either of the deep armchairs available to him, but on the large round cushioned stool eating some ice-cream from one of Mrs Potters favourite porcelain bowls. It was in these positions that James found them in when he entered the room that evening. They were lazily ghostly.

'Geez what's up with you guys?' he laughed as he came into the room and flopped onto the armchair next to Sirius' sofa.

'Where shoo bin?' Sirius asked with a frown, spitting pie as he spoke. He swallowed. 'We were all meant to go and help these two shitheads get jobs.' he went on, jerking his head in the directions of Remus and Peter.

'Thanks dude.' Remus said, his voice a bit muffled by his book.

'Ah yeah I forgot.' James replied, swinging his legs over the arm of the chair so that he was lying, (rather squashed), on it. 'Sorry mate.' he said to Remus, unintentionally ignoring Peter.

'Don't worry about it.' Remus sighed, sitting up and the book dropping from his face onto his lap. He moved so that his was sitting where is head was moments ago, 'No one wanted to hire me anyway.'

'Then they're all twats.' James said.

'How come you forgot?' Sirius asked curiously, 'I knocked on your door this morning.'

'Didn't hear you.' James said, 'Anyway, Lily was still here.'

'I thought she was leaving early?' Remus said, opening the wrapper on his bar of chocolate.

'Her plans changed.' James shrugged before standing up and asking the group if any of them wanted a drink.

Sirius and Remus looked at each other, both with one eyebrow raised and curious expressions on their faces. Peter was the only one who went to answer James' question but Sirius held his hand up to him to shut him up.

'Come again?' Sirius asked, a smirk dawning on his face.

'Her plans changed.' James repeated patronizingly slow. He then turned and walked out of his sitting room, through his mums living room, and several other large and unused rooms on his way to the kitchen. Sirius and Remus, along with Peter trailing after them, left it a couple of minutes before they followed him, wanting to know what had happened with Lily.

'So why'd her plans change?' Remus asked as they followed James into the kitchen.

'Cause they did.' James replied, giving nothing away. When they finally reached the kitchen he made a bee line to one of the cupboards and took out a glass. He then walked over to the sink and filled it up with water, then turned to lean on the counter and face his friends. Peter had jumped up onto one of the stools that ran the length of one of the sides of the island as a sort of makeshift breakfast bar. Remus did the same but leant forwards onto his elbows, his hands clasped together and a look of intrigue on his face. Then there was Sirius who was still smirking at James, leant lazily on the surface top of the island, crumbs of the pie that he had been eating previously pinned to his top. It was he who decided to take the direct route.

'So did you sleep with her?' he asked, raising his eyebrows suggestively. Peter gasped as if it was the biggest news in the world and Remus rolled his eyes at him but looked mildly interested at James.

James swallowed and took a breath, deciding on his answer and whether Lily would be mad about him telling them that they had. He took a sip of his water and contemplated his decision. They were his friends after all. If he wanted to share this with them, if only for a distasteful high five then he could. And he was pretty sure that she would tell Alice and Frank. Why couldn't he tell them? He lowered his glass and swallowed the water he still had in his mouth. He nodded slowly. 'Yeah.' he said eventually.

Peter gasped again, earning himself a smack around the head from Remus for making the situation far more dramatic than it needed to be. After all, Lily and James had been dating for over a year. It was kind of inevitable that things would happen between them. It was just a matter of when.

'DUDE!' Sirius yelled, going out for that high five James knew he would get and, smirking, he took it.

'I thought you were waiting till marriage.' Peter asked timidly.

Both Sirius and James' expressions turned into derisive frowns. 'Nah mate that's you.' James laughed.

'If you ever land a girl who'd have you.' Sirius jeered.

Remus snorted a laugh and looked at Peter with pitiful sympathy. He looked extremely disheartened.

'So Jimmy-boy,' Sirius said, turning back to James, 'How was it? She good?'

'I'm not telling you.' James chuckled, 'Pervert.'

'Aww come on!' Sirius whined, banging his fist on the table, 'I haven't had sex in almost six months dude. That's bad.'

'You have an odd definition of the word bad considering the war that's going on at the minute.' Remus pointed out.

'Yeah but it's not like it's touched us here.' Sirius said, gesturing around the safer than safe Potter Mansion. 'Not like I need to be to-'

'TOO much information!' Remus cut him off whilst James chuckled. 'If you're that hard up, why don't you stop being perverted and begging James for scraps of details about his sex life and go out and find someone yourself.'

Sirius' eyes lit up. 'You're right!' he stated excitedly, 'Tonight we hit the town. Find us all some tail!' he banged his fist on the table and looked around at his friends who all looked sceptically at him. His face fell. 'Well…' he began again, 'Not Mr Commitment over here and, come on let's face it, Wormy ain't gonna get any action till he sorts this…' Sirius gesture to the whole of Peter, '…out. But you and me, Moony!'

'Oh joy.' Remus sighed. James smirked at him.

'We can do it!' Sirius said enthusiastically, 'It may take you a while but I can teach you the tricks of the trade.'

'This is not the education I signed up for.'

'With me as a wing man…' Sirius started, staring confidently into a corner and stopping mid-sentence as a 'power move'.

'Please say he doesn't have real wings?' Remus asked James.

'Can't promise you anything.' James chuckled much to Remus' displeasure.

'Great.' he said, rolling his eyes. There was a silence. Remus looked at Sirius who was still staring triumphantly into a corner. He looked back at James. 'Is he ever gonna finish that sentence?'

'Probab-'

'WE CANNOT FAIL!' Sirius yelled, punching his fist into the air.

'There you go.' James said

Sirius looked around at his friends and grinned like a mad man at the prospect of a night out to pick up girls. And this, he hoped, was to be the first of many. And he rather liked that idea.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! :)**

**Review if you want to but you don't have to.**

**My next update will be on the 5th of June!**

**Galindaba**


	9. Chapter 8

**Hey guys! :)**

**So this is your 5th of June update. I hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Eight**

'How does he do it?' Peter asked depressively as he looked over to Sirius who was standing at the bar in the Leaky Cauldron. He was talking to a dark haired girl wearing a too tight strappy red dress that showed pretty much all of her legs, arms and chest.

For the past couple of weeks, the boys had been going out almost every night. For the first few, Peter had been trying his hardest to pick up girls but to no avail. They just weren't interested in him which depressed him endlessly as he was very interested in them. And not just to have sex with them which was, for at least the first week, both Sirius and Remus' aim. No Peter wanted to be more like James than like them. He liked the way that James could just disappear with Lily and escape the rest of them. It was like freedom but with someone he actually liked. And got to have sex with. It was like the perfect choice for Peter. He just hadn't quite managed to find it yet.

He had told Sirius, Remus and James what he wanted. Remus had been ambivalent towards the idea. Not cynical and not quite optimistic. He actually didn't say anything really, just gave a single, thoughtful nod, as if he was thinking about the same thing. James had given him a cocky smirk that said, 'I know I have an awesome life' and then a shrug of the shoulders when Peter had looked to him on advice on how he, Wormtail, the little plump boy who still lived with his over-protective mother, could have what James had. Surprisingly, it had been Sirius who had had advice on the matter. At the time, he slung his arm over Peters shoulder and told him the secret to James' success.

'Alright Wormy, here's what you do.' he began, his alcohol layered breath almost scorching Peters eyes as he spoke down to him, 'Find a girl in this room. Any girl. Stare at her. Are you staring Wormy?'

'Yes.' Peter had said. He had transfixed his eyes upon a pretty blonde girl with similar blue, watery eyes to him. Perhaps they had both felt belittled at some point by both family and friends. Maybe they had middle ground to start on.

'Right, what you do now is…' he paused in false thought for a second, 'You know what, I've forgotten.' He went on before turning to James and asking, 'Hey Prongs, is it five or six years of pining away whilst she ignores your on-going attempts to flirt with her and ask her out?'

James' 'isn't my life fantastic' smile faded then and he glared at Sirius. 'That's not funny.'

'You are right it was five years.' he said, nodding his head, ignoring James' scowl and turning back to Peter. 'For the sixth year, you become her friend and continue to pine for her secretly. That's right. In this year you get her to like you back and make her see that you are no longer the pretentious douche she thought you were for the first five years. And even when you learn she does like you from someone close to her, you still do nothing because, hey! What person doesn't like a bit of harmless angst in their life!?'

'Dude! Do you have to?' James said, unimpressed with Sirius' retelling of the unflattering beginnings of his story with Lily. (Later that evening though, after one too many, he had found Sirius' word highly hilarious and kept repeating impressions of it the rest of the night.)

'I'm just trying to help him land a girl for once!' Sirius drawled, still with a smirk. 'So!' he continued, turning back to Peter whom he had still had his arm around, 'Where was I? Ah yes! What you do then, is admit your long harboured feelings towards the girl. She finally admits she feels the same way about you herself, and then you still do nothing for a few months until you decide go out in secret for a couple months before it all comes out in some huge dramatic way!'

Peter had then looked up at him with derisive uncertainty. 'When do I get to sleep with her?'

'Well…' Sirius had thought, looking at the girl that Peter had picked out before, 'With her…in eight years.'

Peter had given up on the idea after that. He had tried to talk to that pretty blonde haired girl but it turned out that her eyes were only watery because her grandfather had just died. There was no middle ground for them after all. Peter did try to carry on talking to her, to try and comfort her in her time of grief, but Sirius had swooped in whispering 'red alert, red alert' to Peter and ushering him away. Peter had thought that Sirius was leaving the grieving girl behind too but, when he turned around, Sirius was still talking to her. It only took him ten minutes before he left with her, giving a huge thumbs up to James who returned the gesture with a grinning laugh. Peter did try half-heartedly after that but whenever he thought he might have a shot, Sirius would jump in and close the deal for himself.

It was extremely frustrating for him, especially as he could only come out on Wednesday and Saturday nights because that was when his mum had her book club with some of the ladies down his street, (all muggles). Technically his mum didn't allow him to go on drinking nights out. Apparently, his fragile and tender stomach wouldn't be able to hand alcohol and his mother knew that his friends would try to pressure him into drinking. Better he stay in the house and stay healthy then go out and die from alcohol poisoning. So Wednesdays and Saturdays were the only days he could sneak out the house without his mother knowing. She didn't get home till eleven and she made Peter go to bed at half ten each night. She didn't check on him. She just assumed he would be in bed asleep which worked just fine for Peter. He'd stay at James' on these nights with the other marauders.

Remus on the other hand, had lasted a smidgen longer than Peter. But, unlike it was for Peter, it wasn't his charm, looks, personality, or any traits he had in himself that let him down. He was a handsome and interesting lad. Of course, he had a few scars here and there which he would rather not let show but, he knew if it got down to it, they could be explained away with excuses. He had a good imagination; he could create some story as to why he had so many marks. Plus, after speaking to him for a few minutes, his intelligence would shine through and, as Sirius always said, girls like good looking guys with brains to boot. So there was no excuse for him not to be trolling out there every night with Sirius, attempting to seduce some poor willing girl into sleeping with him. It was just himself giving up. He was more than capable of picking up a girl in the bar but, just like James, he had a commitment streak which meant he wasn't all too enthusiastic about the idea of hooking up with someone for one night.

When he started out at the beginning of the night, looking for a girl he thought he could talk to, it seemed so easy. There would be no risk of her becoming prejudice because there would be no reason for Remus to tell her of his condition. After one night, as was the way Sirius said the system worked, she would be gone, and he would be moving on. Rejection wasn't an issue. But as the night would ware on and he would be sat talking to someone, getting to know them and getting to like them, the more he thought that whoever he was speaking to seemed more like someone he could view himself in a relationship with. Someone he couldn't leave in the morning with no word of goodbye or even a note. Someone who he believed deserved better than that. Somebody who deserved a man to be as good to them as James was to Lily. And so, because he knew that he could not give anything like that to that person, he would smile at the end of the night and politely decline when they asked for him to walk them home, go back to theirs, or write to them or whatever. He would say no to all of that, say that it was nice meeting them and walk away. After doing this for a week, he decided to give up. It wasn't worth it really.

So all that was left to do for the few weeks before the training programmes started, was to go out each night, (apart from those full mooned ones of course), and watch Sirius win time after time after time. The boy hadn't slept in his own bed for almost a month and, to be honest, he seemed perfectly happy about it. As was James as it meant when Lily stayed they could actually sleep in his room and not have to move to another.

James looked over to where Sirius was stood at the bar, moving his hand around the dark haired girls waist to her back and pulling her ever so slightly closer towards him. 'He's always had a knack for it.' he chuckled, taking a swig from his Butterbeer bottle as he answered Peter's question of 'How does he do it?'

'Add that to the fact that that girl has no self-esteem and it's kind of inevitable.' Remus put in, looking over to the girl. She was pretty. Dark hair, dark eyes, pouty lips and a red dress were a lethal combination to any man. Then again, that girl didn't turn quite as many heads as Lily did when she walked into the bar, her deep red hair loosely curled and clipped back on one side, dark blue denim jeans and a loose fitting emerald green jumper that hung off of one of her shoulders revealing the strap to her black strappy top underneath. She was a breath of fresh air and normalcy in a bar full of desperate twenty something's and old drunkards.

When James spotted her, he smiled and raised his Butterbeer at her. She, in return, rolled her eyes and made a small, almost unseen gesture towards the bar that told him she was going to get a drink of her own.

'You see Wormy,' James said, 'if you did exactly what Sirius told you a few weeks ago, in eight years, you could be sleeping with the girl who turns the most heads when she walk in.'

'You hated that story when he first told it.' Peter mumbled.

'I know but,' James sighed, 'It stars me. And I can't really hate something that I star in now can I?'

Over at the bar, Lily was ordering herself a Butterbeer. She glanced around as she waited to survey the pub scene. Peter was with them today and he looked as gloomy as ever. She always wanted him to cheer up but didn't know how to get through to him. Remus and James were sat laughing about something or other. At first she couldn't see Sirius but when she looked again, she saw him chatting up a girl who couldn't have been more than twenty-two years old. She rolled her eyes fondly at him, something which, in the past, she would have never of thought possible in this situation, yet for Sirius it was. He was always trying to flirt with someone and she felt as if she hadn't seen him try to get some poor unwitting girl to take him home like a stray puppy for ages. She didn't come out with the boys as often as she would like because she was in full preparation mode for the Healer training programme, the commencement for which was almost imminent. However, she decided to take a day of and spend the night with James and their friends, something which she hadn't done in a week or more. She felt a bit distant.

'All righ' bootiful?' came a slur from next to her. She could smell the alcohol on his breath. She shuddered to think how close he was to her. She looked to her right, where the guy was standing and saw a boy around her age leaning on the bar for support and staring at her whilst licking his lips.

She tried to force a smile. 'Just waiting for a drink.' she said shortly, not particularly wanting to get into a conversation with him. He was a good-looking lad in theory but his posture, state of inebriation, drunken slurred voice and the fact that she had a boyfriend put her off him completely.

'Was say yous came back to mine for drink 'stead?'

'I'm fine thanks.' Lily said. She shuddered as he advanced slightly towards her, spilling a bit of the pint he had in his hand. 'And if you come any closer I promise it's the last thing you'll do.' She had withdrawn her wand, ready and able to fight her own battles. However, the drunken boy didn't notice this and didn't seem to get the message that she wasn't interested.

'Come on girl. I bets I couldst make you-'

'What's up Lily-flower?'

Lily looked to the left side of her and breathed a sigh of relief at someone leaning on the bar next to her.

'Back off bro! She my caught. I catched her.'

'You're gonna catch something in a minute.' he said, 'If you get my drift.' He looked down at Lily's wand.

The drunken man attempted to level his severely dilated eyes at the wand that was pointed to his trousers. He seemed to think better of himself, obviously knowing that he was in no state to win a duel against anyone and that, if he tried to throw curses out, he'd probably miss and have the rebound upon himself. 'Yours loss.' he muttered as he walked away.

Lily sighed with relief at his withdrawal. 'Thank you.' she said gratefully as she warily watched the drunk guy walk over to the dark haired girl in a too tight strappy red dress. She slipped her wand back into her bag.

Sirius grinned. 'No problem.'

'If you hadn't have come over when you did though-'

'You'd have probably done some major damage.' Sirius laughed, giving her a one arm hug, 'But I wouldn't want Tom to have to chuck you out for cursing someone. You are like an annoying ginger sister to me-'

'I'm not ginger.'

'-and I need my ginger sister to hang out with.' he said, '(And take us all home when we all get too drunk.)'

Lily paused, not taking the hidden compliment that Sirius had given her on her dueling skills and ignoring the fact that he was expecting her to drag all of the marauders back to the mansion in one piece by herself. No she was more concerned about other comments. 'I'm not ginger.' she repeated.

Sirius looked confused. He gestured to her deep red hair. But the she raised her eyebrows dangerously at him and he decided to let it go.

'Anyway,' he went on quickly, 'you know that if I hadn't have come over Prongs would have seen and then he'd have come over and we'd all be banned from this pub for life, friends with the landlord or not.'

Lily sighed. 'You're probably right.'

'So, now that you've cost me my date,' Sirius said to Lily, grabbing her Butterbeer from the side that Tom had just put down, and glancing at the girl he had spent almost twenty minutes talking to, 'Let's go sit down.'

'I'd hardly call her a date Sirius.' Lily laughed as she walked with him through the crowded pub to the booth where James, Remus and Peter sat, 'How long you known her?'

'Like that's important.' Sirius scoffed, 'What's important is that you have just broken my streak. And that is a grudge I will hold by the way. Besides, now I have to go back to my own bed which means you and Jimmy-boy will have to find somewhere else to have sex so ha-ha jokes on you!'

Lily rolled her eyes. 'Fantastic.' she said.

* * *

On the eighteenth of September, Lily, James and Sirius, Remus, and Peter, all went their separate ways into the 'real world'. Lily made her way on her own to St Mungo's Hospital to enrol on a three year training course so that she could become a healer. James and Sirius went to the Ministry of Magic to enrol on their three year course to become aurors, a programme which, unfortunately, neither Remus or Peter made it on to. However, Peter had managed to wrangle himself a job interview at the Magical Menagerie down Diagon Alley. This just left Remus. And all he had to do was sit in the big Potter mansion all by himself.

He had contemplated going to visit his parents but they would both be at work. Plus, since he had moved out, he hadn't particularly been in regular contact with them. He had seen them possibly once or twice a month since he had left Hogwarts and had gone to live with Sirius, James and his mum. The visits had been short.

So now all he had to do was roam the grounds, search the house, and possibly spend sometime in the library. Perhaps he would even clean the place. He wasn't sure how much tidying had been done in this place since Linda died if he was to be truly honest with himself. Jane Potter didn't have time to clean and James, from being so sheltered from such things because he had always had others to do it for him, probably couldn't even tell you which end of a feather duster was the end you used. It would astonish Remus if James knew where such things were stored really. So that was what Remus decided he would do whilst his friends were out living the life he apparently was not entitled to. And besides, as he couldn't contribute any money towards the running of the house, he had to earn his keep somehow.

* * *

Peter sat nervously in a reception room above a shop in Diagon Alley, picking at the worn cuticles on his left hand with his right. His feet were bobbing up and down anxiously as he waited for the manager of the Magical Menagerie to call him for his interview. He was sat with several other people, all applying for the same position, all probably much better suited for a job in which you had to be confident enough to talk to people and try to sell them things. Animals to be precise.

A few of the other candidates he recognised from Hogwarts. He had greeted them with a sureness, knowing that, in Hogwarts, he had carried a much higher status in popularity than they had. But, sadly, as their first question to him was to enquire how James Potter, Sirius Black and 'that Remus Lupin guy' were all getting on and whether they were still in contact, he was forcefully reminded that the only reason he had been even half way up the social scale, was because of them. He had then lost any ounce of assurance he had, backed away as soon as he could and sat down to wait, glancing enviously at times over to the Hogwarts alumni wishing he had never said hello to them in the first place. He was reminded enough of how lame he was every day from his mother and unintentionally by his friends. He didn't need it from people he only recognised in passing.

'Peter Pettigrew?' called the manager from a slightly open door which, assumedly, led to an adjoining office.

Peter stood up and scurried over, leaving the others behind him and not turning back. He didn't need them to make him any more nervous than he already was. He entered the office and heard the door shut behind him. This was it.

'Please, take a seat.' the manager said, gesturing to a rickety chair in front of a scuffed and splintered desk whilst he took the one behind. It was a different guy than the one who had banned Sirius from the store a few weeks ago for making a scene.

'Thank you.' Peter answered timidly.

'My names Clarence Hopgrass.' the manager said, setting out the application form that Peter had filled and handed in weeks ago on the desk in front of him. He also had a parchment pad with a quill and ink pot next to it. But he didn't pick them up. Instead he folded his arms on the desk, leaning forwards slightly, and looked Peter in the eye. 'I'm the head manager of the store here. Now, how are you today?'

'I'm…fine.' Peter swallowed.

Hopgrass looked down at Peters application. 'It says here that you are applying for the sales assistant position today. Is there any particular reason why you think you'd be good at the job?' he asked.

Peter paused. Would he be good at the job? No. Simply put he was sure that he would be a complete disaster at it. But he had to say something. A short answer would probably be his best bet. 'Yes.' he said.

'Would you like to elaborate?' Hopgrass hinted.

'No.' Peter replied, unable to get the hint. He had never been very good at picking up hidden messages in words.

Hopgrass' fingers hovered near the quill. Then he thought better of it and instead, just moved the application form further in front of him. 'You received an E in your N.E.W.T's Care of Magical Creatures exam at Hogwarts is that correct?'

'Yes.' Peter said. He was once again playing nervously with the skin around his cuticles on his left hand.

Hopgrass paused. 'Care to elaborate?' he asked, gesturing Peter to do so.

'No.' Peter said.

Sighing, Hopgrass got up. 'I'm afraid I cannot offer you the position today.' he said, giving Peter no more time in what he could see was going to be a timewasting interview. He held out his hand for Peter to shake. 'Thank you very much for your interest in this position and if-'

'I take care of a werewolf.' Peter blurted out. His watery eyes fixed themselves onto Hopgrass' green ones.

'Excuse me?' Hopgrass questioned.

'I take care of a werewolf.' Peter repeated, for once trying to think off of the top of his head. What would James do in this situation? That was the question he was asking himself. James was, nine times out of ten, rather good at making up lies right on the spot. Things that would make someone think twice about what they were doing. And it seemed that Mr Hopgrass' interest had been piqued. 'A werewolf, a rat, a stag and a…a dog.' Peter said, stumbling over his words a little but still managing to get them out. 'I… I look after them. All. I help them really…Please I need this. I like animals. I want to take care of them. I take care of a werewolf.'

Peter was breathing heavily and his eyes seemed to be pleading with Hopgrass to such a point that the man seemed to think twice and slowly returned to his seat. 'Please.' he said, 'Tell me more.'

Peter sighed with relief. Relief that his interview wasn't over after all, that he could salvage it and that he still had a chance.

* * *

Lily stood in a quick moving line, desperate to register her arrival with whoever was at the desk and get directions to the room in which her induction onto the course would be. She was in St Mungos Hospital on the first floor where everybody arrived through an abandoned building in muggle London. It really was fascinating to see them appear from, seemingly, nowhere on this side of the building. Sure she had been a witch her whole life, known about it much earlier than most muggle born witches thanks to Severus, but it still amazed her things that magic could do. And she couldn't wait to learn more. And, secretly, she hoped, to make some new friends.

She wasn't ungrateful for what she had. In fact she couldn't feel more blessed with her circle of friends. She loved Alice and Frank. She loved Remus, Sirius and Peter. And lord knows she loved James. But, for some unexplainable reason, she felt stuck. And that wasn't something she wanted to feel. It was probably because, within the space of about three years, from her fifth year at Hogwarts to her seventh, she had lost two best friends. Her childhood friend down the street from her, who had helped her learn about the wizarding world long before she received her Hogwarts letter, and her best friend at Hogwarts with whom she had shared a dorm room along with her deepest secrets. Both of those friendships had turned dark in the worst way. They seemed irreparable. She had lost the ones who knew her best. Of course, now that person was James but, she couldn't help but want a few more people in her life who she shared this type of deep connection with.

She could either be with James and the marauders or Alice who invariably had Frank with her. It was nice to have two solid parties to go to. But she did want a few more. If she said it out loud though, she might be hated for it, for taking the people she already had in her life for granted. She really didn't though. She was so thankful to have her friends, her boyfriend. They were all brilliant to her. She couldn't ask for more. But she was. And she hated herself for it. No matter how hard she had tried in the past to get rid of these thoughts, she had been unsuccessful. So now the opportunity to do something about it, to try and make new friends, was here, she wasn't going to waste it. Perhaps attempting to branch out would be the only way to banish her wonderings.

A group of girls joined the queue behind her. She could hear them talking. Hear their whole conversation in fact because they were very loud. Of course they had to be in St Mungo's as the hustle and bustle around them was deafening but still they could have kept their conversation volume to a minimum.

Lily cursed herself. Instead of reprimanding them in her head about talking loudly in a place where they were perfectly entitled to do so, she should be trying to talk to them. After all, that was how you made new friends. You spoke to them. You found common ground and only through this would she find the connection she was after. And she was going to. Until they said her name.

'Lily Evans I think?' one girl said. She was from up north. Somewhere like Liverpool. Her accent was thick so it was hard to register Lily's name at first but, as the girls went on with their conversation, it was clear to Lily that they were, indeed, talking about her.

'The one who went out with James Potter?' said a Scottish sounding girl.

They were obviously from Hogwarts. Lily hadn't actually thought about that. Almost everyone on this course was going to be from Hogwarts. They would have heard and believed rumours about her. This would make it very hard to start fresh and make new friends.

'Didn't they break up?' said another.

_They're multiplying_, Lily thought to herself. If it wasn't bad enough that they were talking about her right behind her back, loud enough for her to hear, there was a huge group of them doing it. More than she had thought there were at first. If she ever thought that the Hogwarts gossip was behind her now and she would never have to relieve it, then she was clearly wrong. And it frustrated her to the point of breaking.

'You think everyone's broken up Nellie.' the Liverpudlian girl said to the girl in question.

'No I don't.' Nellie defended herself, 'But I'm sure they broke up. After what she did, what Hestia told us about…'

'Actually I heard that too.' the Scottish girl put in, 'That was terrible what she did though. I don't blame him.'

Lily took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself down. She knew what they were on about. Well…not exactly. When she and Hestia stopped being friends after James had told Lily the marauders big secret and Lily had accidently told Hestia who in turn caused a huge, prejudice, dramatic scene about it all, Lily knew that Hestia had put out a reason as to why they had stopped being friends. She had never heard what this reason was though. Apparently it was bad and apparently, it painted Lily as a villain and Hestia a victim, but she still didn't know what it was. James had refused to tell her. She doubted he ever would and he would have made the other marauders swear to keep it from her as well, not wanting to upset her. Or anger her. Lily didn't know which. She didn't care anymore. She just cared that there were people out there, right behind her in fact, who were still going on about it and thinking it was their business. _This _was why she had few real friends, ones she would trust with her secrets and life. Ones who she wanted to know her business unlike these girls behind her.

'I swear they didn't break up.' said the only girl who seemed to have her facts straight, the one who had called Nellie by name.

'Why don't we just ask her then?' Nellie suggested.

'No way !' the Scottish girl objected, 'If they have broken up good.'

They moved forwards in the queue. There was only one person in front of Lily now.

'And if James Potter in on the market again then I don't want to be known as talking to bloody Lily Evans of all people!' the Scottish girl went on, 'It's just unnecessary baggage that slows you down on the way to the bedroom if you know what I mean.'

_Perhaps having a lot of friends is overrated, _Lily thought. She should stop thinking she needed more and just ensure the ones she had knew how much they meant to her. Form that connection with them. Get closer to Alice, closer than they were. As close as she used to be with Hestia. Hang out with the boys without James. Get closer to Sirius. Or Remus. Just form whatever connection she was after with the people who had already proved themselves far too worthy of her trust and friendship.

'We all know what you mean Midge.' said the only unnamed girl. 'And, to be honest, I think we all had the same idea.'

The girls all giggled, synchronised in their annoying high pitched laughs which made Lily want to turn around and punch them all in the face. But she couldn't do that because now, she was first in the queue.

She stepped forwards ready to talk to the witch behind the desk. She smiled broadly at her, genuine and true, because it was Jane Potter behind that desk and she had clearly overheard what the girls behind Lily had been saying about her son. She looked ready to kill. But upon seeing Lily, she also broke into a genuine smile.

'Lily dear!' she greeted her, 'Haven't seen you in a while.'

Lily could see the girls faces in her head. Confused. They would look confused at this witches greeting of Lily. And they were about to look ashamed and guilty as Lily made a very James move at this point, one similar to when he had found her on a second fake date with Joshua Hunt and had purposefully gotten closer to her at the bar just to piss him off. Lily had clearly hung out with him far too much. He was such a bad influence!

'Hello Mrs Potter.' Lily said evenly, ensuring every delicious syllable was well heard by the girls behind her, 'I haven't seen you in a while either. You've not been there when I've been round.' she went on. She wasn't a bitchy person but when there were people who were talking loudly about her, right behind her, well…her red-headed temper and fiery nature took control. She couldn't help but savour the thought of what those poor girls' faces must look like now.

'I know but I've been swamped with work.' Jane Potter said, taking a piece of parchment from the stack next to her and picking up her quill. She dipped it in ink and started to write Lily's details down on the form, knowing them by heart thanks to her lunch with Lily weeks ago and because of how James had gone about her whenever they had the chance to sit down and have a family meal. For Jane, it was nice to see him so happy.

'How come?' Lily asked politely.

'Everyone seems to be disappearing with mysterious illnesses.' Jane said with a bit of a derisive tone. She clearly didn't believe it. 'Personally, I think half of them are just terrified to come into work recently. We had a few genuine disappearances a while back on the fourth floor.' she went on.

'Oh my God!' Lily gasped, suddenly no longer interested in what the girls behind her were thinking about. Her petty problems with ever haunting gossip from Hogwarts wasn't important. There were things happening in the world, terrifying things and if Lily ever thought that her problems or her life was of a higher precedence than sorting them out then she seriously needed to sort out her priorities. 'What happened?' Lily asked.

'I can't really discuss it Lily dear but it was a while back so I'm sure it's all been sorted by now.' Jane said, dropping the volume of her voice a bit. 'Will you be coming round after your induction?'

'Probably.' Lily replied, loving how Mrs Potter was helping her, purposefully or not, in her crusade to put the girls gossiping to shame. But it wasn't prominent in her mind anymore. Now she just wanted to know what had happened on the fourth floor of St Mungos never mind how long ago it may have been. What had Voldemort and his forces set in motion? And why hadn't it been reported in the Daily Prophet?

'Please do.' Jane said, putting the form she had filled out for Lily onto an ever-growing pile just to the left of her desk. She picked up a large envelope from the pile next to this and wrote Lily's name and the identification number she had given her in some boxes on the front of it. 'After James' induction to the auror programme today, I won't be able to deal with his excitement on my own. And then there's Sirius to contend with too. He's just as bad. He's like a dog with a bone.'

Lily laughed. Mostly because Jane Potter couldn't see the irony in her words. 'I'll come help you out.' Lily smiled, taking the envelope off of Jane Potter. It was heavy. 'The trick with Sirius is to give him pie.'

'Yes that does seem to shut him up.' Jane laughed, 'If only James had a trigger.'

Lily thought. 'I'll think of something.' she said slyly.

'Great.' Jane beamed before getting back to business. 'Right. You need to go to the fifth floor to the visitors tea room and go through the door marked 'Staff Only'. There's a badge in your pack which you need to wear to go through the door. When you're in there, an identification photo will be taken and transferred onto the badge. They will direct you from there.'

'Brilliant. Thank you Mrs Potter.' Lily said.

'You're welcome dear.' Jane smiled. The smile faded though when she called 'Next' and one of the girls behind Lily stepped forwards to register themselves.

As Lily walked away from the line. She looked over her shoulder to see the one of the girls looking nervously at Jane Potter and the other two enviously over at Lily. She looked back to her path to the elevator and smirked to herself. Her victorious state was short lived though, because as soon as she got into the lift and pressed the button for the fifth floor, she noticed the button for the fourth floor and her mind couldn't help but drift back to that place of curiosity, wondering what exactly had happened there. Who had gone missing? Why had they disappeared? And why hadn't anything been publicised? Was anyone doing anything about it?

* * *

When James and Sirius arrived at the Ministry of Magic, they found Alice and Frank and together, went to line up in a similar queue as Lily had herself stood in at St Mungos. The only difference between their queues was the length of time they were in them. Lily was only in the line for registration for mere moments until the extremely efficient Jane Potter saw her and handed her a welcome pack. James, Sirius, Alice and Frank however were lined up for a tiresome three hours before they could even see the inept and lazy man who was supposed to be signing them in for the induction. The signing in itself, though it only took Mrs Potter less than five minutes for each individual who came up to her desk, took this guy at least twenty minutes per person. Granted, he was rather old with white wispy hair and large round glasses which magnified his bright blue eyes a dozen times, but it was still rather annoying to them all.

They had all been told to arrive at nine o'clock promptly, but by the time they had managed to make their way into the conference room on the second floor where all the auror office was located, it had reached half past one. According to the schedule they had been given, they were meant to be on a lunch break by now but unfortunately, they had been told that due to time restrictions, they were no longer allowed one. Sirius, of course, was not best pleased by this, had stood up and threatened to walk out of the room. If he had done this at Hogwarts, many of the teachers would have just looked the other way whilst he scoffed down a Honeydukes chocolate bar and the class would continue as though nothing had happened. Here however, the woman conducting the induction, (Karen Williamson presumably as that was the name written on the chalkboard on the wall behind her), just told Sirius to leave. And if he left, he wasn't to come back again. She said it in such a way that there was a tangible sense of awkwardness in the air as the woman stared Sirius down until he had no choice but to hang his head in shame and sit back down next to James who unwisely laughed.

'Please take out your expected criteria list, your equipment list, your reading list, your code of conduct list, your schedules, your quills, ink, and your parchment books.' Williamson said matter-of factly. She looked to be in her mid-thirty's, far too young in James' opinion to be training the next generation of aurors. Really someone who was the age his father would have been now would have been better teaching this course. Perhaps Alastor Moody. He was a good auror. James had heard many great stories about him from eavesdropping on his parents conversations through the years. Why he wasn't teaching this course, James would never know. At least not yet.

James opened the welcome pack that the doddery old man at the registration desk had given him and tipped the contents of it onto the table. He didn't have a quill with him or any ink, let alone a parchment book. He hadn't realised he had needed them. But looking around the room, it seemed that he and Sirius, (who hadn't brought these things along either), were the only ones.

The room they were in wasn't particularly large but a good twenty or so students were all squashed comfortably into it, all sitting in rows of chairs behind rows of tables. James and Sirius had sat at the back of the room with Alice and Frank. James kept his fingers crossed that Williamson couldn't see the fact that he was asking Alice and Frank for spare quills for himself and Sirius along with ink and parchment. He had thought he had gotten away with it as well but there was something in Williamson's brief glance towards them before she started to speak again that made him think twice.

'Let's start with the code of conduct.' Williamson said, picking up a book from a desk pushed against the wall next to the chalk board and opening it up to a bookmarked page. 'All witches and wizards who elect to undertake the Ministry of Magic approved auror qualification training programme must adhere to the following code of conduct.'

Williamson droned on, reading aloud the twenty something rules that came with taking the programme James and Sirius were beginning. Around the eighth point however – 'aurors in training are to report any criminal offences against the Ministry of Magic to either the head of the auror department, or the leader of the Ministry of Magic approved auror qualification training programme, before any further action can be taken. Upon reporting said criminal offences, the auror in training in question must then submit a full report on the subject matter as well as a conclusive statement explaining what action they would take in the situation if they were allowed to partake such exploits. This course of action however, is nullified in situations of life and/or death upon which, the auror in training must report a full account justifying their means' - James and Sirius became bored of listening and instead, turned their attention to rating the thirteen or so girls who were in the room.

They were quite happily doing this, (even though James did feel a bit guilty about it and worried as Alice was the closest friend Lily had and she could obviously hear him), until Williamson called them out to answer a question.

James and Sirius looked at each other in confusion before James had the guts to ask what the question was.

'If you had been listening,' she said impatiently, 'you would know that I questioned you on which area of study we discipline you the most in during your first year. If you had been listening, you would know that we focus primarily on the theoretical side of the training programme and if you had been listening, you would know that you are given regular tests in this subject area to ensure you have gained the knowledge you need to be able to perform, not an adequate attempt at a defensive spell, but a spectacular one.' she said. She clearly wasn't finished though.

James sat with his mouth partly open, as did Sirius, both unable to take in the fact that they had arrived in this, for lack of a better word, 'class' and within the hour, they were already in trouble. All eyes in the room were on them. Considering their reputations at Hogwarts, their mischievousness, the fact that they regularly had detention and were always nuisances to their teachers, they should have been used to the class staring at them, and they were. In fact, at Hogwarts, they had thrived on it. And they were more often than not, able to talk the class _and _their professors into loving them for their disruptive antics. But this felt different. These were not adoring glances and Williamson definitely didn't love them.

She continued. 'However, clearly you haven't been listening. Clearly, you haven't been paying attention or even brought your own equipment with you. Clearly, you believe that rating the poor girls in this room on a scale of one to ten based on their outer attractiveness is a much better use of your time than listening to this crucial information which will in fact help you through the next three years of your lives.'

James should have been listening to this too, word for word. But all he could think of though was how this woman really liked to talk in threes. Three 'if you had been listening's'. Three 'clearly's'. He had to hold back a laugh as he thought of what she was going to triple up on next.

'Not only is this degrading to the young women in this room who are here to learn.' Williamson went on, 'Not only is this misogynistic and offensive for you to do, not to mention rude whilst I am speaking…'

Apparently she was repeating 'not only's' now. James tried his hardest not to laugh.

'And not only will this get you nowhere in life but it will also get you nowhere in my class. And I will _not _stand for it.' Williamson finished speaking solely to James and Sirius. Now she addressed the whole class. 'I am not like your professors at school.' she stated, 'I am not your friend, here to encourage you when you are struggling. I am not afraid to kick you out of this training programme. And if I kick you out…Don't. Bother. Coming. Back.'

James' laughter left him. Instead he looked at Sirius and Sirius looked at him. They both gulped. They definitely weren't at Hogwarts now. And this was not going to be what they thought it would.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Review if you'd like!**

**Next update on the 13th of June cause hey, I'm a rebel and like to tempt fate by updating on Friday the 13th! :p**

**Galindaba**


	10. Chapter 9

**Hey everyone!**

**I am so sorry this is a day late but updating on Friday the 13th wasn't my best idea. I'm not a superstitious person. I have two black cats and walk under ladders all the time and cross on the stairs and such. But there was a power cut down my street yesterday and damn that feels like bad joo joo. :/ Something supernatural definitely went on there.**

**So sorry for the late update. :(**

**But thank you to all my reviewers so far! It always boosts your confidence to write when you know people like it so thank you for your lovely comments! :)**

**Here's Chapter Nine! I hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Nine**

Lily dove straight into her healer training. She immediately bought all the books and supplies her welcome pack which Jane Potter handed to her at the registration desk, said she would be needing. She had also gone down to the stationary shop in the town where she lived and bought herself, (using the money her father had given her as she technically had none of her own), five packs of coloured notelets, tubs upon tubs of notice board push pins and, of course, a huge notice board to put it all on because she didn't have one in her room already. She hadn't needed one before as she had been at Hogwarts and, when at home, she hadn't needed to do any work. But she was now living at home full time whilst she was taking her training programme. So now she had plenty of work to do there and needed a way to organise it so she could see what she was doing next.

Of course, she had to accommodate the fact that a lot of the work she was doing on her own would be practical. She would need to practice making medicinal potions and other things. She would also need to practice her enchantments and healing spells. She couldn't very well just set out her cauldron at the dining room table and be waving her wand around willy-nilly in the living room. One reason being her mother wouldn't allow it. The other being that Petunia and Vernon had taken to popping round a couple evenings a week now for tea and Lily knew that if either of them got the slightest whiff that something magical or 'freaky' was going on, they would not be happy. So, for a lot of the time, she was holed up in her room which had very suddenly shrank in size thanks to the measures she had taken to ensure she had all the room she needed.

She had rearranged her entire bedroom to such an extent that her only 'personal space' was on her bed. And that wasn't much use for company so she hadn't been able to have Alice or James over since their courses began a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, they were both in the same situation. She hadn't seen either of them, especially Alice, for a while and Lily was hoping for a catch up soon but, the future didn't look too bright for that to happen in. Mostly it looked like textbooks, research, healing incantations, potion ingredients and her cauldron. And that was only because that was literally all you could see in her room. It was so cluttered that her parents didn't even attempt to come in anymore but instead spoke to her through the door and, when she went out for meals, she simply apparated down into the kitchen. It was much easier than attempting to make her way through her very own obstacle course. Though with each 'pop' of her apparition, her Dad still jumped.

Richard Evans may have been jumpy when Lily apparated but, for him, it was far more preferable to have her holed up in her room studying, training to be a healer, only apparating down for mealtimes and only leaving the house to go to class than knowing she was over at James' god-knows-where doing god-knows-what. It had been a year now and he still didn't approve very much of the boy. In his opinion, he was trouble. He didn't believe that somebody who used to be that cruel could change to the extent that his youngest daughter, the smartest of all the Evans', would agree to go out with him. He just thought that James had tricked her somehow, though this was not the case. And no matter how many times Lily begged him to just give James a chance, (Heather too), Richard would not budge on his position towards him. He was sweet as pie to Lily whenever he wasn't around though, continuously treating her like the little girl he sent off to Hogwarts when she was eleven and only wanting to spoil her rotten. And in some ways, this was fine. But ignoring the fact that she had grown up also meant ignoring the existence of a boyfriend in her life. He was fine with that and, for the most part, it did create a peaceful atmosphere. But if James' name was mentioned…

'There's a new bookstore opening in town sweet-pea.' he said one evening when they were having dinner, just him, Lily and Heather. 'Did you know?'

Lily swallowed a mouthful of her roast dinner to answer him. 'Been a bit too preoccupied Dad.' She reached for her orange squash and drank a few sips.

'Did you want to go this weekend?' he asked her, 'I'll get you any book you want. We haven't really been out, just you and me, for a while now.'

'I know.' Lily replied, setting her glass down, 'And I would love to but I made plans with James this weekend.' She went back to eating her dinner as though nothing was wrong, and nothing was wrong. Only Richard Evans didn't see it that way. He stopped eating and put down his knife and fork.

'Can you not cancel?' he asked, 'I was really looking forwards to spending the weekend with my little girl.'

'Richard leave her be.' Heather intervened, 'She's already made plans. You can take her to the bookshop next weekend.'

'I'm working next weekend' Richard said stiffly.

'You don't work weekends dear.' Heather sighed.

'We'll go next weekend then Dad.' Lily smiled, partially amused by her Dad's oversight and partially annoyed that he was still acting this way about James. It was a bit childish really.

'That's not the point-'

'Then what is the point?' Lily interrupted her father, almost daring him to say something along the lines of his previous 'James is a rotten boy' speeches.

'I was just looking forwards to spending the weekend with you.' Richard said.

During the rest of the week, at every available opportunity afterwards, Richard made sure that Lily knew how 'upset' he was that they weren't going to have a father-daughter weekend together. If they were watching the television and an advert came on detailing some event that was happening that weekend or a fun activity at a local place, somewhere that was running an offer, he would just offhandedly mention that they could have done that at the weekend. If Lily had been craving some sort of meal, like the seaside's fish and chips, he would say that he would take her there that weekend then make a dramatic recanting of the statement. Needless to say, it went on for a while and it was constant and, thanks to the pressures that came with her healer training programme, Lily eventually had enough and in the end just told her Dad she would cancel plans with James and spend the weekend doing Daddy-Daughter activities that they used to do when she was younger, like mini-golf. All she could think about though was that it's a sad day when you realise your boyfriend can handle a change of plans far better that your father can. It's an even sadder day when you realise this unfortunately starts to become a regular occurrence to the point of breaking.

* * *

James, Sirius, Alice and Frank sat at the back of the conference room in which they had had their induction. They had been on this course for a few weeks now, marching them into October, and they had yet to lift a wand which something which James especially was not happy with. Sure he could answer all of the theoretical questions, perhaps a bit better if he had bothered to read any of the suggested material Karen Williamson had given them, but he had applied for this course with the expectation that he would be trained how to be an auror. His father had told him stories of his training days when he was alive and they were always jam-packed with funny anecdotes, jokes and practical work. He had just assumed it would be the same for him. Apparently he was wrong.

He was laughing with Sirius about the fact that Peter had actually succeeded in securing himself a job at the magical menagerie. Really they should have been proud that their friend was actually doing something to earn money and having a job in which he could get promoted, but they weren't. Instead, they found it hilarious that Peter, who had gone to the interview a few weeks ago for a shop assistant, had been given a rather different position in the shop: animal maintenance. And even though Peter had tried to explain to them all yesterday evening at the Leakey Cauldron that this meant he would be seeing to the animals cares and needs - grooming them, taking the owls out to fly and stretch their wings, taking the other creatures the store stocked outside too to run around and making sure they were fit and healthy and clean - James and Sirius simply focused on the fact that he would basically be, in their eyes, a human pooper scooper. They had teased him mercilessly all night about it, Remus never stopping them and Lily not being there to do so either. Their jokes had continued well into the night and now, they came with them to auror training burning off of the fact that, as Peter had stayed over last night, they had taken him to Diagon alley teasing him all the way, before making the trip over to the Ministry. They were making these jokes when Karen Williamson, their ruthless mentor for the auror training programme entered the room.

'Did I miss the joke?' she said disapprovingly with a glare at James and Sirius when entered the room.

James and Sirius looked at each other and rolled their eyes. They had been on this programme for not even a month yet, they only had sessions three times a week, and yet somehow Williamson had come to hate them already. She made it known in subtle ways but had never let slip the reason why. Maybe it was because they were always laughing about something or another when she entered the room. Perhaps it was because they always had their wands out when they were supposed to be learning the punishable offences that a wizard could commit as part of their basic theoretical training or, it could have just been because they had been caught eating in her sessions on several occasions and that was something she strongly disapproved of. But there were probably other things too.

Williamson went and leant on the edge of the desk that was at the front of the conference room. She stared at the faces in the room all sat on an individual chairs, today, arranged in two medium sized semi-circles, one behind the other. James and Sirius, (and Alice and Frank), were centre back. She narrowed her eyes at them.

'Did everyone study the bi-laws in the footnotes of the Ministry of Magic's Handbook of Petty Misdemeanours and Crimes?' she asked the room at large. Apart from James and Sirius, who rolled their eyes at each other again, everyone either muttered a yes or nodded their heads.

'Psst!' Sirius whispered a little loudly to James, 'What's a dis-men-nee-naw?'

James scoffed. 'You're asking me?' he chuckled silently, 'How am I meant to bloody know? Where's Remus when you need him, right?'

Sirius laughed silently back. 'Yeah tell me about it!' he said, 'I can't understand half the words this bitch uses.'

James snorted and laughed back, avoiding looking at Williamson at all costs. 'Ask Alice what it means.' he suggested.

'Good idea!' Sirius enthused. He turned to Alice who was next to Frank who was next to him. 'Psst! Alice.' he said in an exaggerated whisper to get her attention.

Alice looked at Frank who just pointed to Sirius with obvious exasperation. It was clear he was regretting sitting in between his girlfriend and his girlfriend's best friend's friends.

'What do you want Black?' Alice said in a hushed tone, trying her hardest to avoid Williamson's watchful eye.

'What does dis-men-nee-naw mean?' he asked.

Alice's expression changed to one of puzzlement. She looked at Frank for some help in decoding the word Sirius had just spouted out but he didn't know either. He just shrugged at her.

James laughed and leaned forwards so that he could see Alice. 'He means misdemeanour.' He informed Alice, 'What does misdemeanour mean-'

'Well Mr. Potter.' Williamson said from the front of the room, next to the chalk board upon which she had written book titles and page numbers along with the order of which worksheet forms they were meant to fill out first. 'If you had read the book it would have been clear to you what a misdemeanour was. If you had read the book then you would have known that it is when somebody breaks the law but whatever they have done is not strictly considered as a crime. And if you had read the book you would not have felt the need to interrupt the rest of the group with your extraordinarily _loud_ whisper.'

James looked down momentarily before attempting to explain to the woman, who only ever spoke in phrases of threes, what was actually going on. 'Karen that's not-'

'You are to call me Williamson Mr Potter. It is only respectful.' Williamson reprimanded.

James puffed out a breath of frustrated air. 'Sorry, _Williamson._' he stressed before planning to go on, 'I was just going to say-'

'Have you read the bi-laws that I specifically asked you to read for this session, Mr Potter?' Williamson cut him off.

James paused. 'No but-'

'Have you bought the book, Mr Potter?' Williamson asked.

James gulped but didn't answer.

'Have you only signed up for this training programme to waste time, Mr Potter?' she said as her final question in her set of three. 'Because it seems that way to me.'

'I didn't think that I had to get the books.' James said, trying to find the boldness he used to use on his Hogwarts professors when he had forgotten to do homework and gave his excuses. The confidence he had used on those occasions had sometimes worked in getting him out of detentions, at least with certain teachers such as his divination professor. You couldn't get away with it with McGonagall and, apparently, Williamson was a hundred times harder to get things by. She wasn't playing games. 'I thought the list of books was more of a guide line to what could be useful on this course. I thought we'd, you know, be doing practical work?' he said arrogantly.

'Why, Mr Potter, do you think I would give you a list of books to buy as a mere guideline?' Williamson questioned, 'Why did you think that you would be able to dive straight into practical work without learning by heart the laws which you will be trying to uphold in the position of an auror, the punishments, spells and enchantments used in the standard procedures which are in place or the disciplinary course of actions you are required to undertake for certain situations? Why, Mr Potter, did you think you would be exempt from learning these?'

'I didn't think I'd be 'exempt' but, you know, I'm a practical worker and I'll _learn _better-'

'You will learn better my way!' Williamson interrupted, 'I have produced generations of fine aurors by ensuring they knew all their theory before starting any practical work and, if you think you are some sort of exception to this rule, then I suggest you find another course that offers the programme you are after.'

'I don't want to find another course.' James replied through gritted teeth. He was being rude to his mentor and he knew it. But he didn't care because she hadn't exactly earned any of his respect and he was an advocate of only giving respect where it was due.

'Well then Mr Potter,' Williamson said, a small thin-lipped smile appearing on her face as it she was about to enjoy something, 'You may stay on my course however, you may not stay today. I suggest that you leave and do not return until you can arrive fully equipped for the session having read any and all source material beforehand. Do not return until you have bought all the books that are required for this course along with anything else that was listed in your welcome pack. And do not return until you have adjusted your attitude as I will no longer stand for your interruptions, your rudeness and your arrogance. You may go now.'

James sat with his mouth slightly ajar. She was kicking him out? He had only been kicked out of a class a couple of times at Hogwarts. Usually they just gave him detention or moved him away from his friends. It had never really been like this. Plus, at Hogwarts, if he was to say it wasn't him or his fault, they would more often than not hear him out and listen to his side of the story. They wouldn't cut him of mid-sentence and humiliate him in front of his class mates. Hogwarts didn't work like that. The Ministry of Magic appointed training classes apparently did though.

He leaned under his table and grabbed his bag. He stood up and slung it over his shoulder, not looking at Sirius, Alice, Frank or anyone really. He couldn't just strut out of the class as he would have done at Hogwarts because when he was there, if he was kicked out of the lesson, people would have found it amusing. They would have hailed him for it, laughed about it and praised him to a certain extent on whatever he had said or done to achieve that result. He could do no wrong. He was loved at that school and it was only now he had left that he began to appreciate his unwarranted popularity. Here he just received sneers and derisive looks; he could feel them on him. The people here, though most of them had been at Hogwarts with him, didn't treat him like royalty who could do no wrong. They didn't cheer as they had once done when he messed about or pulled pranks. They didn't seek his approval, seem desperate to be his friend, chase after him, none of it! They didn't even laugh at his jokes. They weren't interested and it actually annoyed him somewhat.

The door shut behind him and he heard Williamson go on with her seminar. He stood there for a second listening to her and realising angrily that she would expect him to do whatever work they were doing today in his own time. He scowled and walked down the corridor to the caged lift to the atrium at the end. He stepped inside it and stood amongst Ministry officials, some of whom were looking at him rather suspiciously as if they knew what had just happened. He tried to ignore them but, when he did, he entered his own thoughts and as he was angry, it was a very dangerous place to be right now.

What bugged him most though was that he genuinely hadn't done anything worthy of being kicked out of the class. It was Sirius who was asking about the word. And Sirius didn't have the books or anything like that either. And yet, it was only him who was told to leave. It really ticked him off. It just added to other things in his life which he had no control over, that were frustrating him endlessly, and that, for the most part, he couldn't fix.

The lift stopped in the Ministry of Magic's atrium, a ground floor of sorts from which you could go anywhere within the place. It was the centre, some might say, of the working wizarding world. In the middle of the marble clad floor was a huge fountain with five large golden statues in the middle of it: a wizard, a witch, a centaur, a goblin and a house elf. There were throngs of people rushing by it, urgently trying to get to where they were supposed to be or just strolling along casually as they were on a break. A few of the passers-by stopped at the fountain. Some of them just stared at its grandeur before continuing on their way whilst others stopped and sat along the wall around it. A few threw loose change, knuts or sickles, into the water absentmindedly. James sighed as he looked over at it before he headed that way to join those few who had taken a couple of minutes out of their day to sit around the circular pool of water.

He ended up sitting next to a middle aged wizard in a raggedy blue velvet robe who was eating a sandwich. He moved moments after James sat down though as, in a momentary burst of the anger that was pooling inside his chest, he had slapped the water of the fountain which unfortunately splashed over in the man's direction, soaking his sandwich. As he hurried off, James shouted an empty apology over to him. He didn't mean it. He didn't care that he has ruined the man's lunch because Williamson, along with Sirius to a certain extent, had ruined his entire day.

It was supposed to be a good day. He was going to come in for his class, get that over and done with, then he, Remus and Sirius were going to make the trip down to Hogsmeade and visit Zonko's for the first time in ages. Then possibly go to the three broomsticks and have a drink. It was going to be the night, he and Remus had decided, that they acclimate Sirius' palate to fire whisky once and for all. They had all agreed he was a bit of a baby when it came down to it, having only ever had it on his birthday and then complaining about it ever since. It was an acquired taste and he had never given it a chance. As a wizard, it was a rite of passage. Plus, ordering two fire whisky's and one daisyroot draught was a bit embarrassing. But now that was all ruined. James couldn't drink if he was angry. He really needed a way to calm down and being alone, for some reason, wasn't working as it usually did.

The golden statue in the fountain reflected in the ripples James had made when he had frustratedly moved the water. He stared down at the reflection and then to the piles of knuts and sickles in the water. There were a few galleons here and there as well but not many. People threw coins into the fountain for odd reasons in James' opinion. The coins were all meant to go to St Mungo's to help fund the hospital but he sincerely doubted that was really the case. He thought some of them looked as though they'd been in there for years, rusting. But people didn't care about that. They didn't throw the coins into the well to help any of the sick and injured people over at St Mungo's right now. No. They threw them into the fountain to serve their own needs; to feel good about themselves for doing something charitable or to make a wish in the hope that it would come true and make life better for themselves. James had one wish right now but he didn't need to throw a coin into a fountain to help him make it come true. He could do it all by himself and he had to do it all by himself. Besides, it was the only thing that he could think of that could possibly calm him down.

* * *

Lily stood up from the desk she had been using in the room where her healer training took place. She picked up her bag and looped it around her neck so that it hung securely down from one shoulder then picked up the three books she'd been using to do research on which potions and balms were most effective when treating contagious skin diseases and infections. It had been rather boring today for the most part as their second mentor who was supposed to train them in areas such as these had decided that coming in today would be a waste of his time, especially as there were tickets available to him for a Quidditch game that afternoon. Apparently, watching a bunch of witches and wizards flap after an assortment of balls was far more important than training the future of the wizarding worlds health system. Lily could see why…not. But she wasn't going to waste the day like a few of the other trainees had done. She was determined to do something.

Whilst a few of the girls in her class, like Nellie and Midge, had decided to go shopping instead and a couple of the boys had announced they were going to join their mentor at the Quidditch game, (Barton versus Pride of Portee), Lily had decided to pay a visit to Mrs Potter and ask her if there was anything useful that she recommend she look at. At first, as Jane Potter was up to her elbows in work, looking very worn and tired, Lily felt guilty about interrupting her for such a mundane and, probably, unimportant question. But Jane was more than happy to give Lily a few suggestions and then send her on her way, no fuss or complaint. She had told her there had been an outbreak of boils and, humorously to Lily, cornflake skin, and recommended that she look into potions and things such as Butterfly Weed balm; find out the method in making things, why they're useful, any side effects, etc. So Lily thanked her and did just that, returning to the fifth floor just near the visitors tea room in the 'staff only' section of the hospital. It was specifically used for trainees and when she settled herself in there she buried herself in books.

She did this for a solid three hours, sat in the room reading, underlining, making notes and ignoring the other few people who had also decided that they would use this time wisely instead of bunking off. It was only when these people all got up, partially as a group but some as individuals, stating in passing that it was time for a lunch break, (the one they would have been given if their mentor had shown up), that Lily had decided to stop. She too would go for some food too, possibly joining her class mates, something she felt rather good about doing today. The ones who were left behind were the sort of people who seemed like her speed. If she could talk to them and get to know them, maybe healer training would be all the better for it. And so she made her way to the door, bag secure and books in hand. However, they didn't stay in her grasp very long for almost as soon as she was out of the room, they were taken off of her.

'Why do you have so many?'

Lily looked up to see who had taken her books. It was James. For some unknown reason. Lily looked at him in confusion as she said, 'Because I need to do research and having lots of different takes on something helps widen your knowledge.'

'Wow.' James smirked, 'You're far too smart for me!'

'I know.' Lily replied, actually a little irritated he had turned up. 'What are you doing here?' She asked him as they started towards the door that led out into the visitor's tea room, 'And how did you get back here? It's staff only!'

'Ahh so maybe you're not too smart for me!' James teased, winking at her as she looked at him with one raised eyebrow. He laughed. 'I stole a badge from some ponce outside the door.' he explained, moving Lily's books to be under just one arm and reaching in his pocket for the stolen badge. He showed it to Lily.

'James!' Lily reprimanded, practically snatching the badge from him. She looked at the name and the picture. Thomas Ralston it read. He had tanned skin, brown eyes and brown hair. His nose was crooked as if it had been broken and left in disrepair. His photo showed him looking at the camera quickly then turning away then looking back and staring angrily. Lily didn't recognise him at all but nevertheless, she would find the boy and give him back his badge. He would need it to get back through to the training room. If James left now she'd still go through with her plan to sit with her classmates and then give the badge back as a conversation starter. But she sensed he wasn't going anywhere any time soon. She had to wonder why the hell he had turned up.

The couple reached the end of the corridor and James opened the door leading to the tea room, holding it open for Lily. 'So err...' he began. He hadn't seen her properly in a while. Not since after their inductions onto their perspective programmes which was three weeks ago now. 'I see you didn't have a tutor in there.'

'No I didn't' Lily said, making her way to one of the tables she frequented near a big window, looking briefly at the rest of the healer students over at the other side of the room. She sighed as she took a seat away from the group but with James. 'He decided not to come in today.' she went on, 'He went to watch a Quidditch game.'

'Cool which one?' James asked, sitting down opposite her and watching her take out a plastic box from her bag. She had brought a packed lunch with her. A pasta salad.

'One where they fly on brooms.' Lily replied with a sarcastic smile.

'Ha!' James chuckled, 'Yeah.' He paused. 'So…no tutor?'

'No tutor.' Lily grimaced as she started to dig around in the front pocket of her bag for a fork.

'Great!' James clapped his hands together once, 'Then let's go! I'll take you for lunch.'

'I have lunch James.' Lily replied, unable to find her fork. 'Why are you here anyway? Don't you have training today as well?' She tried a different pocket for her fork.

'I err…kinda got kicked out.' James said quickly, 'So! Lunch?'

'No. What?' Lily said, her search for the elusive fork halting suddenly. 'You got kicked out? For, like, ever?'

'No not forever.' James said waving away her worry, 'Just for today. At least I think so anyway…So! Lunch?'

'James _stop_ with the lunch.' Lily said frustratedly, putting her bag on the floor and pushing her salad out of the way so that she could lean forwards to James and lower her voice. She was concerned now. 'What happened?'

James rolled his eyes, shrugged largely and heaved a sigh. 'She just…doesn't like me. I didn't buy or read the books she suggested and neither did Sirius because we thought we'd be doing practical work and, you know, actually learning how to catch dark wizards like it says in the job description. But Williamson has us reading and writing useless crap about the 'bi-laws' which is _so _boring! Really it's no wonder we don't do it! So Sirius was asking Alice a dumb question about the title of one of them which she only decided to overhear when I corrected him on how he was saying misdemeanour cause he was saying dis-meh-nee-naw and even though it was _his_ stupid question _I _was the one who was kicked out. How is that fair?'

'Well technically you both should have been kicked out.' Lily said offhandedly.

'Exactly!' James said with a large agreeing hand gesture before realising what she had said. 'Wait. What?'

'You both should have been kicked out.' Lily repeated, 'You've volunteered to take this course and your treating it as if, I don't know…your mums asked you to do the dishes.'

'She has?' James wondered, 'Damn I miss Linda.'

'No, you're not listening.' Lily said with a bit of an irritated sigh. 'I was using that as an example. Look, you wanted to do this course right?'

James nodded reluctantly.

'And,' she pressed on, 'you know that there are others out there who wanted to do this course as well but aren't able to because they didn't get the grades or have a situation that prevents them from being accepted; aka Remus.'

James shifted uncomfortably.

'And yet, you think that just skating by as you did at Hogwarts, doing the bare minimum to help towards your qualification and not doing every possible thing you could do to help yourself get there quicker is a good idea?' Lily asked. 'It's not right James. She asked you to do something and she wasn't saying it for the benefit of her health. She's trying to help you and if you can't see that…'

'But she does hate me.' James complained, 'I know she does.'

'So what?' Lily countered. 'So what if she hates you and thinks that you're not going to do any work or read the books she asks or practice what she wants you to do. You're proving her right and giving her reason to. What you've got to do is prove her wrong.'

For some reason, she felt a bit distant from James and that was probably to do with the fact that she hadn't seen him in a while. And whilst it wasn't his fault that he had turned up on the day Lily had gathered her confidence to sit with new people, a tiny bit of her resented him for it even though it didn't make sense. She felt a bit bad about being a little harsh with him and so tried to make her words seem kinder towards him and held his hand so that they might connect again. As soon as she did, she needn't put effort into making her words sound loving for blood surged to her hand and sent tingles through her spine at the contact. She had really missed touching him.

'Just buy the books.' Lily said softly, 'Read them. Don't take this opportunity for granted.'

James looked down at her hand on his and clasped it tightly. He got what she was saying but it kind of annoyed him because it meant that he was wrong. And James hated to be in the wrong because he hated feeling guilty. It wasn't a nice feeling.

'You know how much Remus would have wanted to be on this course. And watching you practically throw it away because you can't be bothered to put in the tiniest bit of effort will be hard for him.' Lily said.

That hit James. Remus would have loved to have been accepted onto the auror training programme. He had applied for it and, although he tried to mask it with indifference and a prior knowledge of the results, he had been extremely disappointed about being rejected. And there James was, and Sirius, messing around, hanging out in bars or flying around James' personal Quidditch pitch instead of taking the time to actually show their enthusiasm for their course or do the work. It wasn't right and it definitely wasn't fair on Remus to have to watch them throw an opportunity down the toilet that he would have killed to have, simply because they were too lazy or felt they had other more important, more exciting, more _fun_ things to do.

'You're right.' James conceded, 'You're absolutely right.'

'I know.' Lily smiled.

They sat there for a couple of minutes in a little bit of silence. James held her hand in his and found he didn't want to let it go, mostly because, he hadn't held her for a while. She was always changing plans on him recently. He wasn't sure why. And he really didn't want to read too much into it but he did know that if they didn't hang out properly soon, he just might start too. He might take a small insignificant thing, blow it out of proportion and ruin everything to prove a point. He really didn't want to think about that happening.

'Can I take you to dinner tonight?' he asked her. 'I promise I'll buy the books now and let you finish whatever you were doing before. I just want to spend some time with you.'

Lily smiled sadly at him. 'I know.' she said, repeating her line from before. 'And I want to spend some time with you too. Be_lieve_ me. I just…can't tonight.'

James sighed dejectedly and the grasp he had on her hand loosened a little before coming undone completely. He ran his hand through his hair instead, searching for something to do with it. 'Sure.' he muttered.

'I would if I could but Petunia and Vernon are coming over to mum and dads for tea tonight to share some 'big news' with us.' Lily explained, 'And I would invite you but…Petunia. And my Dad. Not to mention Vernon and his view on me let alone you.'

Again, there was just silence.

'I'd have you round.' she half-whispered, almost trying to make up for the fact that he couldn't come over or she couldn't come out. 'I promise…another day.'

'Sure.' James repeated, hating the fact that his faith in 'another day' seemed to be missing. Three weeks shouldn't have caused this.

'Please don't hate me.' she pleaded.

James exhaled and looked at her straight in the eyes. He wondered how it was possible that in only a few short weeks they had come to felt so distant and out of touch. Especially considering how close they had become just recently in every sense of the word. He missed her so much and yet she sat right in front of him. He had thought coming to see her today after his unfortunate auror class was cut short would make him feel better. He thought that, as disappearing didn't seem to want to work for him today, sorting his feelings out that way as he usually did, seeing Lily would do. But it didn't. Instead it just made him ache.

'I don't hate you.' James smiled with a half-hearted shrug of the shoulders. 'I love you. And I miss you. That's all.'

Lily nodded her head. She looked at her watch. 'I'd better get back to class then and continue with my research.' She stood up and placed her hand on his cheek, looking down at him as he looked up, and kissed him momentarily on the lips. 'I love you too. And I will see you soon. I _promise_. In the meantime…I'll write.' she said, 'Okay?'

'Okay.' James replied. Then she walked away and he watched her go. He wanted her to come back.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**The next update will be on the 19th June!**

**Galindaba**


	11. Chapter 10

**Hey everyone!**

**I have just the one chapter for you today I'm afraid. But I am also posting a one-shot called Excalibur so if you want to, check that out as well. It's about when Harry's just been born and the marauders are visiting Lily and James in the hospital.**

**I'd just like to say thanks to the people who reviewed my last chapter: naturalme9, Clozza and Guest. Thanks guys! They made my day! :)**

**Anyway, here's Chapter Ten! I hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Ten**

Albus Dumbledore swept through the halls of Hogwarts in the dead of the night when all the students under his protection at the magical school were supposedly asleep. He made his way down to the main gates of the school, through the winding passages he had known since he was eleven and out the doors to trek across the grounds until he met them. They were wrought iron and heavy as gold, something which no mere man could open on his own. However, with a swift flick of his wand, the gates opened smoothly and quietly for Dumbledore. It was with another wave of his wand that the they closed again, a barely audible clash that signifying that it had been done. He looked up at the castle with its turrets and odd architecture, the winged boars atop the pillars either side of the gates looking menacing and protective. He wouldn't be gone long and he was only heading down to the Three Broomsticks. But in a time like this when everything was far more dangerous than anyone really knew, he couldn't help but worry about the lives of everyone and everything inside the fortress of Hogwarts. Hopefully, the information he was to receive tonight from Benjy Fenwick and Marlene McKinnon would bring him a step closer to stopping the evil that was closing in.

He found his way down the twisting path to Hogsmeade and stopped at the Three Broomsticks pub. He knocked three times in rhythm and the door was opened by a weary eyed Madame Rosmerta. She was wearing a long blue night dress with a grey woollen cardigan over the top and donned a night bonnet to match. She was holding a candle-lit lamp in her left hand, shining Dumbledore's way into the pub.

'They're upstairs for you.' she said, trying to hold back a yawn. It was very late.

'Thank you Madame Rosmerta.' Dumbledore said, bowing his head graciously at the pubs land lady, 'I am sorry for waking you.'

'Oh don't worry about it.' Rosmerta yawned, unable to keep it in this time, 'I know it's important. I just wish importance could have waited for a few more hours.'

'My usual room?' he asked her, ignoring her last comment. He didn't have time to be profusely sorry right now. This information could not have waited for a few more hours. Everything involving Voldemort and his latest plans was timesensitive. The sooner Dumbledore knew about it, the quicker he could begin finding a soloution to put a stop to it. After all, if he didn't, who would?

'Yes, yes.' Madam Rosmerta said, showing him the way up the rickety stair case to the third door along. She opened it revealing the lighted room and the two young people who were waiting in there.

The room they were in was bare. The two armchairs, a small round low table in the middle of them and a hat stand near the door were the only pieces of furniture in the room. About a year ago, Dumbledore had begun renting this room from Madame Rosmerta for urgent Order business. Of course, she didn't know exactly what it was for. But still she obliged Dumbledore on his requests to remove the beds, wardrobe and drawers that used to stand in this room and still continued to turn a blind eye to why Dumbledore wanted this room. She had a rough idea which was why she was so willing to get up at ridiculous times to accommodate him but she never confirmed it. She didn't want to. And that suited Dumbledore perfectly. It allowed him hold small meetings with various members of the Order without fearing that Rosmerta was going to barge in to fulfil her duties as a hostess, offering drinks around with reckless abandon and accidently stumbling across information she ought not to know.

'Thank you Rosmerta.' Dumbledore said, gliding past her and into the room. He turned to face her before she shut the door. 'Your assistance is greatly appreciated.' He turned his back to her again and only when he heard the door click shut did he gesture the two twenty something's to sit in the squishy armchairs by the roaring fireplace. They did so. He then walked over to the fireplace and stood near the mantle, turning to face Benjy and Marlene who were now settled into their armchairs.

'New information has come to light then I presume?' he said, directing the question to Marlene.

'Yeah.' she said with a bob of her head. She was a conventionally pretty twenty-two year old girl with some spunk. She had sleek chestnut hair which she tied back into a rough ponytail, some of it still hanging down at the front to frame her thin face. She had similarly coloured eyes, framed by long luscious eye-lashes, detailed with a beauty spot next to her right eye and hung under perfectly shaped thick eyebrows. She had slightly tanned skin and was painted with freckles over the bridge of her nose. Her lips were coloured in a mauve-purple which curved in a serious line as she continued. 'We heard a couple of death eaters talking about it at their last meeting. Dug a bit deeper. And think we've finally pieced it together. We wanted to make sure though before we came to you with it all and such.'

'Thought you'd appreciate that.' Benjy said, sending a wink over to Marlene who shook her head amusedly in reply. Benjy was the type of person to put in his two cents only after the information had been relayed already. However, if he found something particularly important, he liked to say it.

Benjy was twenty-four years old, almost twenty-five, and was a typical lay-about lad. He had shoulder length wavy hair which was a dirty blonde, matching the designer stubble he had been working on and the small square patch he had left unshaven under his bottom lip. He had a natural cheek to his curved smile, a straight arrow nose and seaweed green eyes which were set a little too far apart. He should have been wearing glasses but he never did, not liking the look they created when combined with his thick eyebrows.

Together, the two twenty-something's, were partners. Not romantic partners, but work partners. They had a good rhythm together and so, when assignments were dished out at Order meetings, they would confirm with each other before taking them. They both knew the seriousness of what they were doing and the risks they were taking. Many people in their situation would have been scared. They would have lost themselves to the fear of knowing they could die at any minute. But these two acted as if they were office workers and their volunteer jobs were nothing more than normal nine to five jobs at the ministry offices. They still lead normal lives, Benjy looking after his grandfather who was a permanent resident at St. Mungos and Marlene with her boyfriend who worked at Zonko's joke shop part-time. They laughed and joked and regularly met up with friends, their personality's able to break them free of the darkness they were involved in.

'What is this information you have collected?' Dumbledore asked Marlene, 'What is it in regards to.'

'Hang on a sec.' she said. She began to rifle through the pockets in her deep purple robes, the bottom riding up a bit to reveal black steel-toed boots with spider-webs on them, the drawn spiders moving around from painted string to painted string.

'Cool boots.' Benjy said with a grin.

'Thanks.' Marlene smiled cockily to Benjy before saying 'Aha!' and turning to Dumbledore. 'I wrote it down.' She leant over and tried to pass it to him but he stopped her by holding up his long slender hand.

'I'd prefer you to tell me.' Dumbledore said, 'I am afraid I have been reading all day and my eyes are a bit weary.'

'Oh. Sure.' Marlene shrugged. She unfolded the piece of parchment and squinted at it. 'Ok. So we managed to get to the boy who was under the imperius curse and read the file from the Minister of Magic's office, used that potion you gave us that would temporarily lift the memory wipe and then used the veritaserum and got him to tell us what was in that file. And as it was you-know-who who ordered the reading of it, we're pretty certain that you-know-who's new plan _will_ be to do with the muggle prime-minister.'

'Go figure.' Benjy interjected. 'For someone who hates muggles I mean.'

'I think that's the point.' Marlene replied. She continued on to Dumbledore who stood in thought and listened intently.

'Okay. So, apparently, muggles can vote for who they want as minister, (good idea), and they do this every four years so long as a majority can be reached.' Marlene started, trying to make sense of her notes. 'The one they've got at the minute, Callaghan I think, doesn't want the general election to take place and it looks like, at the minute, he's gonna get his way. He's told the muggles it's because after he received private polling data, and from that has decided that a parliamentary majority is unlikely. Whatever that is anyway.'

'Sounds like a dessert.' Benjy stated, clasping his hands together, 'Parliamentary majority.'

'Continue please.' Dumbledore said, obviously understanding what Marlene was reading to him despite the fact she wasn't too sure of it herself.

'Errr…' she said, scanning over her parchment for where she left off and shortly recapping it. 'Right. Here we go. So he thinks it's unlikely and doesn't want muggles to vote. He wants to stay as prime-minister, more importantly to us, the Minister of magic _needs _him to stay as muggle prime-minister because he's worried about the time it'll take to explain the wizarding world and the situation it's in to a _new_ prime-minister.'

'All this is what was reported in that file the kid in the Minister of Magic's office, who was under the imperius curse, read.' Benjy added, just repeating what was already known.

'So we must assume everything you are telling me, Voldemort already knows even if he does not.' Dumbledore murmured, ignoring the flinches the name he had uttered brought to the two in the room.

'Yes.' Marlene said, 'And if that is true, then you-know-who knows exactly what the Minister of Magic did to make sure the muggle prime-minister stayed where he was.'

'Which was?' Dumbledore asked.

'He used an unforgiveable curse.' Benjy stated.

Dumbledore looked mildly surprised and muttered to himself. 'I didn't think he'd have it in him.'

'He didn't.' Marlene said, hearing what Dumbledore had said even though she wasn't supposed to. She didn't think anything of it though. She just went back to her parchment and continued. 'So, he didn't actually cast any unforgiveable curses himself. He ordered the head of the auror department to do it for him. You see, according to this, during March earlier this year, the Minister of Magic was obviously getting worried about a change in the muggle government because at the time, after losing in a fake/mock election, the prime-minister faced something called a vote of no confidence. That basically means that, if it had taken place, Callaghan would have been fired because no-one had had confidence in him to keep doing the job he was doing. They'd have found a replacement for him.'

'Bit harsh.' Benjy said.

'Yeah.' Marlene agreed. 'So,' she went on, 'if a vote of no confidence was cast, the muggle world would have been in chaos. Two worlds in chaos is obviously gonna be very appealing to you-know-who. So, (I assume), to keep order in the muggle world so he could focus on the disaster in ours, the Minister of Magic ordered the Callaghan to make a pact with another candidate group lead by someone who had a shot at being the next muggle prime-minister: Steel his name is. The pact they made was to keep the _current _muggle prime-minister _as_ muggle prime-minister. They called it a…err…'Lib-Lab' pact.' she nodded her head after turning her notes over to find the rest of the information they had discovered. She carried on. 'Basically, Steel agreed to help keep Callaghan in power even though he could have taken the job himself. That make sense?'

'Totally.' Benjy said whilst Dumbledore just nodded solemnly and gestured her to continue.

'The bit that _we _think Voldemort is interested in, is this: the leader of the other candidate group, Steel, didn't agree to the pact willingly.'

'The Minister of Magic order the head of the auror department to put him under the imperius curse and forced him to agree to it.' Benjy finished up.

'We think you-know-who might use it as blackmail.' Marlene said, folding up her notes and throwing them on the low table in the middle of hers and Benjy's armchairs.

'Entirely possible.' Dumbledore said, he leant down and picked up the notes, unfolding and studying them.

The room was silent for a little bit. Benjy raised an eyebrow at Marlene and jerked his head to Dumbledore as if to ask what he was doing. Marlene shrugged.

'Are you aware of when this pact was to end?' Dumbledore asked.

'Err…' Marlene paused. She stood up and walked over to Dumbledore, peering over at the notes he now had in his hands. 'It ended in September.'

'So, I must be right in thinking that, despite the Minister of Magic's attempts to delay it, an election will be taking place in the muggle world rather soon.' he said.

'Next year I should think.' Benjy shrugged. He was still sat down, staring over at where Dumbledore and Marlene stood.

'So not only does this information provide Voldemort with black-mail material, it also informs him as to who is susceptible to the imperius curse.' Dumbledore summarised. He began to pace in front of the fire place. Marlene sat back down in her armchair to give him room to do so.

'This information tells him that if he can get close enough to Steel, he can place him under the imperius curse, push him to power and rule over the muggle world which, I am sure, is one of his ultimate goals. Voldemort wants to purify wizard kind and if he has a position of power in the muggle world, he can begin to rid himself of them without arousing suspicion.' Dumbledore deducted, 'We must not let this happen.'

'No sir.' Marlene and Benjy said in unison.

'We must have a permanent guard assembled for all muggles who are taking part in the election for the next muggle prime-minister, particularly the ones who wish to take the title.'

'Yes sir.' Marlene and Benjy repeated.

'But we mustn't naive.' Dumbledore stated. He stopped pacing and turned to face them. 'This will not be the only plan Voldemort has in the works. We cannot focus all our attentions on it. We must keep searching for another move.'

'Sir?' Marlene said, 'We have information about that as well.'

Dumbledore looked mildly surprised. 'And what would that be Miss McKinnon?'

'It's on my notes.' she said.

Dumbledore looked down at her handwriting. Scribbled in the corner was one word: Marsket.

'What is Marsket?' Dumbledore asked her.

'I think you mean who.' Benjy said, folding his arms over the back of his head. 'And let me tell you. It is the oddest little link I've ever heard of.'

* * *

The auror class was an hour and a half into that days training and James was exponentially bored. Williamson was stood at the front, droning on in phrases of three, about how it was illegal to charm muggle objects for the amusement of the wizard. James had actually read chapters on this in each of the seven books he purchased about petty crimes. He had spent the best part of six and a half hours reading and re-reading practically the same information in each of these books. Why he had had to buy seven of them he would never know. They were basically all the same. The only differences between them were the covers, the authors and the wording of the laws. In the time he had wasted reading the sentence 'it is frowned upon when a wizard commits a petty crime but is not punishable by a sentencing to Azkaban' in seven different ways, he could have gone for a ride around the Quidditch pitch. Five hundred times. He could have gone out with Remus, Sirius and Peter. He could have had lunch with his mum as she had wanted or he could have made a surprise visit to Lily as she seemed too busy at the minute to make any definite plans with him. But no. Instead, he had spread himself out on the kitchen table and had proceeded to waste half a day in his life reading dribble that he could have, in any reality, blagged his way through. And now, Williamson was reiterating it all again. It was like he was in hell.

He was tired too. It had been the first night of the full moon last night and he, Sirius and Peter had had a hard time of it. Partly because waiting for Peter to turn up had consumed most of the night anyway. Apparently his mother had become suspicious of his sneaking out, worried that he might be leaving to go and consume copious amounts of alcohol with the wages he was earning at the magical menagerie. So she had stayed up for three extra hours demanding that he tell her if he was planning on sneaking out and reprimanding him for thinking of doing such a thing. He had tried to persuade her otherwise but had eventually caved in and told her he was going to go stay at James' that night but that they weren't planning on going out anywhere. To placate her further, he had ended up giving her all the money he had saved from his job, all of it, before begging her to let him go just this once. And then, when she still wouldn't, he had ended up spiking her tea with sleeping draught and going anyway. When asked why this wasn't his first move, he was unable to answer and instead snapped at Sirius for asking him. He had lost his life savings that night and drugged his mother. He was in no mood for Sirius' remarks. However, his mood was lifted, thrown into the air with excitement in fact, when James suggested that, instead of having to go through that again, he should just come and live in the mansion with them. He didn't know it, but James had given Peter a much needed moment of happiness.

When they had finally found their way to the forest on the very edge of the Potter property, apparating within an hour's walking distance from it before transforming to avoid Moony catching a whiff of their human scent, they had a hard time finding him. All transformed, they ran through the forest, scouring every detail, every inch of it. Prongs was beside himself, knowing that even though the mansion was acres and acres away from the forest on the edge of the property, there was still a chance that Moony could have made it there and realised that there was a human in the house: Jane Potter. She would be sound asleep by now and, if Moony did somehow manage to make his way in, she wouldn't be able to defend herself and he would lose two people he loved in one night. The other thing that ran through his mind was the other animals on the Potter property: the sheep, the horses, the chickens. But they needn't have done for they actually found Moony a few minutes later, trapped underneath some overgrown roots of a conifer tree. They assumed he had been chasing a rabbit.

It took Wormy two hours to nibble through enough of the root that was trapping Moony until it was weak enough for Prongs to stamp it broken with his hoof. Once he was free, for some unknown reason, Moony pounced on Padfoot who was sat harmlessly right in front of him, anxiously awaiting his friends freedom. Prongs had had to use the full force of his antlers to shift Moony off of him but unfortunately, Padfoot's nose was still scratched and clawed in the process. After that, keeping an angry and hurt Moony, (for he was aching after being stuck under a tree root for so long), had kept them alert and in constant demand for a few more hours until the sun rose and a tender Moony was replaced by an exhausted Remus. Once he had seen what he had done to Padfoot's nose he was so apologetic but once transformed, Sirius told him to forget about it. It didn't stop Remus making an apology breakfast for his friends though. From there, it was rest for Remus, work for Peter, and the auror training programme for Sirius and James.

So Sirius, (with a gash on his nose that needed to be healed really as it hadn't really stopped bleeding), and James were now sat, absolutely bored out of their minds, in the conference room on the second floor of the Ministry of Magic. Sirius's eyes kept dropping closed and it was only by Alice Prewett's constant jabs in his ribs that he didn't just fall to sleep. James, who was sat next to Frank Longbottom was more successful in staying awake, but only just. And in his exhausted mind, he couldn't help but think that, maybe if he wasn't hearing the same information he had read seven times, he would be able to concentrate just a little bit harder. As it was, he couldn't but technically he didn't need too.

As soon as the subject had come up, James had withdrawn the notes he had on the subject from his bag and set them out on the table. He was doodling around the edges of them so it would seem to Williamson that he was taking notes on her lecture. His doodles ranged from snitches to plans on a way to turn his entire mansion into a giant bouncy castle made from jelly, from unrecognisable stags to the simple initials L.E. This was something which Frank didn't fail to notice.

'Lily Evans?' Frank asked in a whisper. He was unaccustomed to James' doodling and so, even though he was pretty sure L.E. meant Lily Evans, (a standard James doodle), he still asked.

James looked at him with a bit of a derisive look, not particularly in the mood to be questioned or spoken to or, anything really. 'No.' he said sarcastically, 'It stands for Law Enforcement. You see I'm just so damned pleased to be here and hear about things I've already read I just had to express my love for it all and-'

'Mr Potter!' Williamson called out, turning to James. Due to his tired state, his ability to whisper or, the need for it in that moment, had slipped his mind. She had heard him speaking to Frank. She continued. 'I do hope you've been listening. I do hope that you are not here just to waste my time and I do hope that your proclamation of love for law enforcement is genuine.' She raised one stern eyebrow testingly.

James exhaled a frustrated breath of air and looked around him. Everyone, (bar Sirius who seemed to have actually succeeded in falling asleep without another nudge from Alice), was looking at him, but not with the adoration or expectation that he had once received at Hogwarts. Unfortunately, he was getting all to use to that whilst he was in that room. The glares from the students who despised the fact that Williamson often stopped the lecture she was giving to call James out for yet another thing he was doing that _she_ viewed as disruptive. James was sure that, if she just let him get on with some of the things he did, like the odd harmless conversation, the rest of the students wouldn't be as annoyed with him. Of course, outside of the class, they were fine. They had been out to the Leakey Cauldron a few nights and he had had a laugh with them all but when they were in that seminar, they didn't see the fun and laughter they had with him elsewhere. That didn't mean, however, that he knuckled under and changed for them.

'Yeah of course it's genuine.' James snarked, 'Who here doesn't love sitting in this room week after week listening to a bunch of rules which we never _actually_ get to practice.'

'Mr Potter I thought you were aware that the first year of this course is theoretical. It is something that everyone was made aware of in their acceptance letters.' Williamson replied, ignoring his sarcasm and folding her arms at him.

James sighed and lent back boyishly in his chair. 'I know.' He was a little thrown off by the fact that, for once, she wasn't speaking in chorus' of threes.

She stared at him with narrowed eyes. She didn't believe he cared about the theory and, she was right. It was clear in his demeanour in class. He never sat to attention. He never took notes. He didn't even have the books. Little did she know though, that despite that he wasn't taking notes that say and that he wasn't sitting to attention, he had bought the books thanks to a small, somewhat forced, intervention from his girlfriend. And he knew his stuff.

'Mr Potter.' she said, placing her hands on her hips, 'Are you aware of what we have been talking about for the past hour and a half?'

James just raised his eyebrows at her and folded his arms. He really, _really_, wasn't in the mood for this today.

'Mr Potter.' she continued on, despite his lack of an answer. A smile played around her lips. It was the smile she used when she kicked him out the other day. She was ready to do that again. 'What punishment is given to a witch or wizard who has enchanted an every-day object in an attempt to bait muggles and who would deal with it?'

James blinked at her and the class rolled their eyes, almost in unison as they expected, once again, for James to be kicked out of the class. Last time it was because he hadn't bought the books. But he had now. And it was quite a different story.

James breathed out in slight exasperation at Williamsons glare as he leaned forwards onto his desk and clasped his hands together. He looked her straight in the eye and spoke with complete ease and confidence. 'Depending on the severity of the case it will be handled by either the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol or the auror department. The severity is determined by whether the muggle has been severely hurt or harmed and is in need off medical attention by either our healers or their doctors. If they _do_ need medical attention, the witch or wizard who has been doing the muggle-baiting will be requested to report to an inquiry hearing at which their punishment will be decided. As muggle-baiting is not an offence punishable by a one-way trip to Azkaban, the punishment is usually a fine of up to five hundred galleons and a mark on their criminal record. However, if it is just a juvenile prank and the muggle is nothing but confused about what has happened, the witch or wizard can get away with just a warning.'

When he had finished, practically reciting each of the seven books he had read this information continuously, he leant back in his chair again and folded his arms. He raised his eyebrows at Williamson, daring her to contest the answer he had given for he knew it was right. She may think he was lazy and a bit of a delinquent, a little bit thick, but James knew otherwise. He was incredibly smart even without reading and doing research. When he did do the work set however, it just tripled his intelligence output.

The room sat with open mouths. They had not expected, not in a million years, for all of that information to pour out of James Potter's mouth. A little bit of the summarised information he had given hadn't even been taught in the lecture yet. Some of the students, mainly the boys, were slyly trying to scribble down some of the facts that James had mentioned in an attempt to either fill their notes or give them a break a bit later when Williamson went on to fines, warnings and criminal records. A few of the thirteen or so girls in the class were doing the same. Another few were whispering between themselves, still shocked that James Potter had actually answered a question to the point of stumping Williamson with shock and the remaining through were looking at James with a new found level of attraction. Handsome, fun and now, smart to boot. A few of them wouldn't mind to have him on their arm. But James didn't particularly care, even though this attention was akin to what he had revelled in at Hogwarts. One, he was too tired and two, it made him think of Lily.

Lily who he hadn't seen since he went to see her at St. Mungo's the day he had been kicked out of the class he was in now. Lily who said she would write but had only written a grand total of two letters in the past week as she had had to study and go to dinner with her family and to her grandmother's grave and go to classes but not see him at all. Lily who he ached to see, touch, smell and hear with every fibre of his being but at the minute was restricted from doing so for reasons he couldn't quite fathom. He was _still _trying not to read too much into it but it had been going on for a while now, even before his surprise trip to St. Mungos, and he just felt that they had come too far for it all to come crashing down on them now thanks to a bit of distance. But, on the bright side, without that distance, without that push from her in St. Mungos to buy the books, the answer he had just given to Williamson would not have happened. It wasn't like he saw this as a shimmering silver lining to his distance with Lily but at least it was a positive. It was the only one he could think of.

'That is…' Williamson began, seemingly unable to settle on a word. Finally, after a few seconds, she found one. 'Correct.' she finished. It wasn't a huge compliment. It wasn't a compliment at all. Just a fact. And one she apparently wasn't willing to dwell on for, as soon as she had confirmed to the class that James had, indeed, answered her question correctly, she told them it was time for a break.

James let his head fall back over the back of his chair and took his glasses off. He rubbed his tired eyes and then moved his hand into his hair to mess it up just a bit more than it was, (just for good measure of course), and then put his glasses back on. He expected to just be able to sit there like that for the whole break but, thanks to his show of intelligence, a few people invited him to eat lunch with them. He had looked over to Sirius to see whether he wanted to go or not but, upon seeing that he was, as James suspected, asleep, he politely declined and said that he should probably try and boot some life back into Sirius. Everybody went down to lunch except the two boys, Alice and Frank.

'So,' Frank said, picking up James' doodled notes, 'Lily Evans?'

James sighed, hanging his head back over his chair and closing his eyes. 'Yep.' he answered in return to Frank.

'You do realise that stereotypically it's the girl who's meant to doodle their loves name right?' Frank laughed, trying to induce some humour into James. If he had known how exhausted he actually was and the reasons behind the tiredness, perhaps he would have left him alone and just gone down to lunch with Alice. But, as it was, he didn't know. All he knew was that Alice and Lily were best friends and, when they hung out and he was there, it was a bit uncomfortable for him sometimes as he knew nothing about what they were saying. It was like a foreign language. So if James came along, if he extended a hand of friendship to him, the boy who he had not particularly felt the need to become real friends with before, then maybe they could be uncomfortable together. Perhaps not though. James was known at Hogwarts for fitting into a situation easily and comfortably, as if he belonged there. It could be the same if he came with Lily when she saw Alice but, maybe not. For Frank, there was only one way to find out. But today, James wasn't interested. He was too tired.

'Yeah well…' James started, ruffling his hair again, 'What can I say? I'm a stereotypical girl trapped in a guy's body. Besides, this whole 'the girl does this and the boy does that' in a relationship is crap. Lily's the boss in our relationship.'

'Oh.' Frank stated, shifting uncomfortably, 'She gonna make you go to tea with Alice tomorrow then?'

James frowned and sat up. He clasped his hands together and sat, almost in the same position that he had when he had answered Williamson's question. He looked through squinted eyes at Frank. 'What?' he asked.

'Tea. Tomorrow?' he reiterated, seeing nothing wrong with his question. 'Alice wants me to come too cause I'm staying at hers and she doesn't want me to sit through an evening of twenty questions with her mum.' he laughed, 'And let me tell you-'

'They're having tea tomorrow?' James asked again. So Lily had time to write to Alice, to arrange tea with her but she seemingly had no time for him, not even an hour in the evening? It was really, _really _hard not to read anything into this now. Aside from his surprise visit to St Mungo's, it had been a month since he had seen her properly.

'Yeah.' Frank said cautiously, 'I mean…they haven't seen each other since summer, before we started this programme so I assume it's like some giant catch up.'

James lulled his head and pulled his hands down his cheeks in a tiny bit of frustration. He shouldn't think any more of this than it was. Obviously it was more pressing for Lily to spend a bit of time with Alice as they hadn't seen each other for far longer that he hadn't seen her. And that was probably due to him anyway. He knew that, the week before they had received their acceptance letters onto their perspective training programmes, Lily had had coffee with Alice, but not after that. He presumed that was because, at that time, he was taking up all the free time she had had when she wasn't absorbing the books she had bought for healer training. It was towards the end of summer that they had slept together and when he saw her after that, before programmes started, they had done it time after time. Every time. Perhaps the physical aspect of it all, and the need and desire for it they had started had overridden any urge she had to see her friends consequently causing a break between Alice and herself. It was only fair that Lily spent the free time she had tomorrow at tea with Alice. But that didn't mean it didn't force a twinge of jealousy through James.

'Yeah err…' James began, looking over, (a little enviously), at Alice, 'No I'm not going. Lily's said nothing to me so…'

'You should come.' Frank suggested, 'To be frank, it'll probably make things a bit more comfortable for me if you did. I don't understand half the things they say!' He laughed again.

James laughed with him but not at the same thing. No, what he had found extremely funny in his exhaustion was Frank's use of the phrase 'to be frank'. At the minute, that seemed hilarious to him because, in short, he _was _Frank and he obviously couldn't see the irony in it all. It made him chuckle.

'I can't go I'm afraid.' James stated after a good three minute laugh, something which, after about thirty seconds, Frank started to become a bit confused. James didn't reveal his source of humour though. Instead he continued with their conversation. 'I have stuff I have to do tomorrow evening and I can't bail. Permanent monthly engagement of sorts.' he said, referring to the full moon.

'Too bad.' Frank grimaced.

'Yeah.' James agreed before looking over to the still sleeping Sirius. 'Well,' he said, forcing himself to standing. 'Best wake this dingus up.'

Frank nodded and watched James walk over to Sirius and kick him in the shins to bolt him awake. At the same time as James walked away, Alice walked towards him.

'Lunch?' she asked.

'Yeah.' Frank said, nodding his head at her. They made their way out of the classroom. When they were out of earshot, Frank opened up a conversation.

'Hey, do you think Lily Evans and James Potter are still together?' he asked her curiously.

'Of course they are!' Alice exclaimed, wondering where on earth Frank had come up with the idea that they weren't. It was, to Alice, a bit of a ludicrous idea to think of a world where they _weren't _together. They were like each other's right hand. They couldn't be without each other. They were soul mates. They were together.

'Well are they having problems?' Frank continued to ask. He was someone who liked to know things. Not in a gossipy way but just in the need to know way. He liked knowing.

'Not that I know of.' Alice shrugged, 'Why?'

'Nothing really.' Franks said, 'It's just, he was doodling her initials and got a bit snappy when I asked about it is all. He's not coming to tea tomorrow either.'

'He was probably just annoyed at the lecture.' Alice suggested, 'He obviously knows it all already, I mean, you only have to look at the answer he gave to Williamson to know that. And he never comes with Lily when we hang out so…'

'Yeah but,' Frank sighed, 'I just think that something's wrong with him. I don't know him all that well but…he seems miffed.'

'With Lily?' Alice asked incredulously.

Frank nodded.

Alice looked at him in thought and saw that he was serious. Frank was the type of person to only point something like this out if he had genuine concern. What this concern was born out of, Alice didn't really know. But she couldn't stand the idea of something being wrong between her best friend and James. It was odd to think of really. So she made a resolve. 'I'll ask Lily tomorrow.' she said. And the topic was dropped until tea the next day.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Review if you want to! And look out for Excalibur!**

**Galindaba**


	12. Chapter 11

**Hey everyone!**

**I realised I didn't put an update date on my last update, (if that makes sense), so today I'm gonna give you two chapters and a cliffhanger :) Did I just write that? I mean two chapters with nothing at all else happening but fun and games :)**

**I hope you enjoyed my one-shot by the way if you read it :) if you haven't then HOW COULD YOU! I mean, that's fine. Cool bro. Up to you. (Please read it)**

**Just a quick thank you to Zulnahira Cullen who reviewed my last chapter. I sent you a reply to your question via FanFiction PM so I hope you got it!**

**On that note, if anyone does have any question or something or a scene they would like to see, then I am more than happy for you to PM me. It's summer now so for like, four months, I have nothing to do. Uni summers aren't like high school summers. No they don't mess around. They kick you out for as long as possible :( long story short I'm bored. Entertain me.**

**Anyway, here's Chapter Eleven! I hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter Eleven**

Lily, Alice and Frank were sat in Rosa Lee Teabag tea shop in the late afternoon having the tea that they had planned. They sat around a small round table which had a blue flowered table cloth set neatly over it and a vanilla scented candle alight in the middle. Both Lily and Alice had ordered tea but Frank, who was there only to avoid time alone with Alice's mother, had ordered himself a pumpkin juice. He was almost finished.

The group was talking about the war between Voldemort and the rest of the Wizarding World, because, what else would three eighteen year old be speaking about? Nothing really. To them, even though they technically hadn't been affected by the war themselves yet, it was all too real. It was real for Alice and Frank because they were in the auror training programme and, although they were only learning theory and laws at the minute and it would that at least three years for them to complete the course, their eventual aim was to go out into the world and combat exactly what was going on at the minute: the tortures, the deaths, the disappearances and the prejudice. For Lily, it was all too real for the simple reason that she was a muggleborns witch. A mudblood to Voldemort and his death eaters. She was in danger of becoming a target just because of her heritage. The wizarding world was dangerous for her at the minute. What was even more dangerous, was that they seemed to be receiving less and less news about it all.

Many had though that Voldemort's radio silence, the fact that no reports had been given recently about his or his followers activities, was a good thing. That he was backing off and had become bored with the whole idea of an elitist society. People were under the impression that the resilience of the Minister of Magic and the wizarding community, the efforts of the aurors and the vigilantes they all knew were out there, had forced Voldemort off. Others weren't that optimistic. Other people believed the the Minister of Magic and the Daily Prophet were, either squashing whatever news they had to report or that, because Voldemort hadn't attacked in public, that he was doing something in secret. They wouldn't be wrong. At this was the exact impression that Lily, Frank and Alice were under too. And they weren't afraid to voice it in a café where they may or may not be overheard.

At first, they were talking about the disappearances of a couple healers a few months back on the fourth floor of St. Mungos. Lily had mentioned that Jane Potter had spoken to her about it briefly on the day of her induction into the healer training programme having brought it up only because healers were writing in sick, scared that they could be next to go missing. But Lily also said that, when she had looked it up later, as was a Lily thing to do, she couldn't find any articles about the disappearances anywhere. She had then gone on to subscribe to the Daily Prophet, to get a daily paper delivered to her via owl, just to see if it was brought up at any point. But it wasn't. And that wasn't the only thing she found odd. At first, when she had begun to subscribe, the paper had been decently full with news pertaining to the war. A good half of the newspaper was dedicated to it. But over a few weeks the news being reported had become less infrequent until there were barely any articles on Voldemorts movements. There was still the odd one but now, thanks to the stillness surrounding He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, there was nothing. The news in this area fluctuated so often though, Lily was sure more incidents would be reported soon. After all, even whilst they were at Hogwarts what the paper reported, how much was given out, was up and down. The Minister was always trying to keep the wizarding world in high spirits and bad reports just didn't do that. At some points, on some issues, the Daily Prophet had to comply with him. That was why the news world was always so topsy-turvy.

The other thing that Lily had been concerned about not being reported was, again, something she had seen at St Mungos. The day she had handed in her application form, the day she had finally met James' mother, there had been many patients in the waiting room with giant grey splodges staining their skin. Lily was convinced that this was something else which was, yet again, unreported, but Alice stopped her thinking there and quelled her worry with a story about what that actually was.

'No what that was, according to a girl in our auror class anyway, was just like, some random freak accident.' Alice started to explain, sipping a mouthful of her tea.

'Really?' Lily asked sceptically. She didn't particularly believe it but, if Alice said it was true and had witnesses to prove it then who was she to argue.

'Yeah.' Alice said. She put her tea down in front of her, the cup almost empty, and leaned forwards to tell Lily the whole story. 'You see, you know that beauty shop down the street, Madam Primpernelle's? The one that sells all the beauty potions? Well apparently, she mixed a really bad batch of some spot reducer balms or something cause she dropped a serum she'd been taking that reduced her moustache in to it. Anyone who used it came out in grey splodges where they'd rubbed it on themselves. Those patches are _completely_ bald. Gowanda showed everyone in auror class the one on her back. It's not grey anymore but there's no hair there. And no spots so I guess you could say that the stuff she sold did still work. Anyway, Madam Primpernelle's had to take it off of her shelves and Gowanda had to ask her and St. Mungos to write notes to excuse the lateness of her application form. She was so worried she wouldn't get in cause she handed it in a day late thanks to all that business.'

'Well that's unfortunate.' Lily said, a bit disheartened that the theory she'd conjured up in her head. 'I wonder why James didn't tell me…' she wondered out loud as a random thought. She had meant nothing by it. Frank however, had taken this as his cue to leave.

As soon as James' name was mentioned, he turned to Alice with a questioning look. He didn't really want to sit and listen to gory details of James and Lily's relationship when he could get a brief overview from Alice later as she would no doubt want to talk about it again anyway. Sitting through it twice would be dull. He liked to know things, not be bored to death with them. So he gave Alice a questioning look as if to say. 'should I go?'. She answered subtly by pushing her almost empty tea cup a bit towards him.

'Ok.' he said to her before addressing both Alice and Lily, 'Either of you want another?'

'Peppermint please.' Alice smiled at him.

'Just tea thanks.' Lily said.

Frank nodded his head as a register of their orders and left the table. When he was gone, Alice turned to Lily to start the conversation on a topic that Frank had been curious about the day before.

'So have you seen James recently?' she asked her, seemingly casual.

Lily frowned and thought about it for a second. Technically, in the last month, she had seen him once and that was only for a brief intermittent of ten to fifteen minutes. Plus she had spent the first five or so minutes a little but irritated that he had turned up at all. The last moments though, they had been unexplainable. She didn't know what the distance was nor the rush of affection from the simple action of taking his hand. She couldn't describe it. It was weird.

'I saw him for a bit about a week ago.' she shrugged as if it was no big deal, 'But not really since our induction days. Why?'

Alice shook her head a little as if it really shouldn't matter. But it did. 'He just seemed a bit down in auror training and I wondered if you knew what was wrong.' Alice made up.

'Is he not doing well in them?' Lily asked, concerned.

'No he's doing fine.' Alice said, waving away Lily's worry, 'In fact he stumped Williamson with this incredible answer to this question she asked. The look on her face was hilarious. She clearly thought she was gonna kick him out of the class again. But no, she didn't. I don't think he'd let that happen again.'

Lily smiled weakly and nodded her head. He wouldn't let that happen again because of what she had said to him when she saw him at St Mungos. It was nice to hear he had taken it to heart but, she couldn't say that she wasn't at least a little disappointed that it was Alice who got to see him show his intelligence and not her. James was very sexy when he used his smarts. It was something that she loved about him but she hadn't seen it in a while. Partly because, they had left Hogwarts, they had no classes together and no reason to show this side to each other anymore. They weren't at school. But another reason why she hadn't seen him do this was because she hadn't seen him.

'We're fine though.' Lily stated, assuring Alice and, in some way, trying to reassure herself. 'I mean, we haven't seen each other in a bit but…we write. I mean, I've had to do other things and he understands that. At least I think he does…'

'When did you last write to him?' Alice wondered.

'Before I came here.' Lily answered truthfully. She had written to him, just a brief note, before she had arrived at Rosa Lee Teabag to meet Alice and Frank. She would have written to him sooner but she had been busy. She had been in healer training all day yesterday and, after that had finished, she had gone to Florean Fortescue's with her new friend Thomas Ralston, (the one who James had nicked the ID badge off of the other week), to study some more. Today had been pretty much the same: healer training all day and then tea with Alice and Frank. The only difference was the ten minutes spare she had before her plans started.

'And before that?' Alice asked, referring to Lily's letters to James.

Lily shrugged. 'I dunno…a few days before.' She narrowed her eyes at Alice. 'Why are you so concerned all of a sudden?'

'I've always been concerned.' Alice stated, 'I just know that we haven't seen each other for ages and I wondered if the same went for you and James.'

Lily shifted, a little uncomfortable with the microscope that Alice seemed to be putting her relationship under. It reminded her of something that Hestia or, god forbid, Severus would have done; read into every detail despite its insignificance.

'I just know you gave up a lot to be with him and it'd be a shame if-'

'Me and James are fine Alice.' Lily cut her off. She began to draw circles on the table-clothed table. It was something Alice didn't fail to notice.

'I'm sorry.' she apologised, watching Lily's index finger go round and round until it stopped suddenly.

'It's fine.' Lily said, leaning forwards onto the table slightly, 'And anything I gave up…the thing with Severus and Hestia after that…you know they really didn't have anything to do with James. Not really.'

'What do you mean?' Alice asked curiously.

'Well with Severus he called me a you-know-what and, that was before I was even _friends _with James, yet alone dating him. That was strictly me realising I…I couldn't deal with that anymore, you know? It was just too much, too toxic. It had been coming for a long time remember?'

Alice nodded.

'And Hestia…' Lily's eyes widened as she replayed this event in her life which didn't seem to stop tormenting her, 'It may sound odd and like an excuse or whatever but, I didn't choose James over Hestia. Well I did but…I didn't.'

Lily stopped talking and began to draw circles on the table again. She looked over to Frank who stood waiting in the queue to be served. The place was packed tonight and so, he had only moved up a little bit in the line. He would be another five minutes yet before he even placed their order. After this cup of tea though, Lily believed she needed to go home. She had reading to be done before tomorrow.

Alice was looking at Lily a bit lost. Finally, she couldn't take the confusion anymore. 'I don't get what you mean.' she said, 'You chose him but you didn't? What does that mean?'

'Well…' Lily started. This was a dangerous topic to broach. She couldn't say exactly what the choice was, prejudice or decency towards Remus because that would reveal the fact that he was a werewolf and that was something she had promised not to tell. From there it was just a hop skip and a jump to the illegal actions James, Sirius and Peter had taken to help him. She had to be cautious. 'It was more of a moral decision really.' she began again, 'I chose the…option…that meant I wouldn't go against by belief that…everyone is equal. What Hestia stood for, I was against. It just so happened that James was…the one in the right. Get what I mean?'

Alice still looked befuddled. 'No.' she said.

Lily huffed a breath of frustrated air. 'Remember when I thought James had a secret he wasn't telling me? A big one? And you told me that maybe he needed his secrets and just to give him a bit of time to open up about it?'

'Yeah.' Alice nodded.

'Well it was about that.' Lily said, 'I accidentally told Hestia and…yeah it was bad. So I had to choose a moral stand point. Not a person.'

'Can I know what the secret was?' Alice asked, perhaps a little cheekily.

Lily just shook her head and stated. 'I promised him.'

'Ok.' Alice shrugged. She wasn't going to force her to break his trust. 'Can I just say though? That almost broke you apart, whatever it was, and you didn't speak to each other for about a week back then. I remember you being beside himself that he wouldn't talk to you. _He_ could be feeling that now. Only this time, it's you not talking to him and…well it's James Potter. One: he could do something stupid or ridiculous to get your attention. Two: he could find someone else. He has offers. And from when we last spoke you two weren't having sex so there's no physical relationship and-'

'We've had sex.' Lily said simply. She was right a couple of months ago. Once you had done it, it wasn't uncomfortable to speak about. At least, not for her.

After this statement, it was as if their mature conversation about Lily's relationship had been replaced by an excitable teenage one. After all, they were still teenagers. At least for a couple more years.

'Really?' Alice gasped, smiling happily for her best friend and leaning forwards in her seat slightly. 'How was it?'

'It was…' Lily grinned to herself, 'It was amazing.'

'Sooo...' Alice asked insinuatingly, 'Was it a _big deal?'_

Lily tried to bite back her smile but was unsuccessful. It showed on her face clear as day. She raised her eyebrows and nodded slightly. She gave a single breathless laugh before saying, 'It was quite sizable.'

'Wow.' Alice grinned back, 'Lucky you!'

'Hey!' Frank asked as he returned with the girls teas. 'What you talking about?'

Lily laughed and looked at him with a quick shake of her head. 'You don't want to know.' she said simply.

Franks looked to Alice for confirmation. She too shook her head. 'Okay then…' he said, sitting down next to her.

As he did so, Alice slightly leaned back in her chair, behind her boyfriend's peripheral vision and pointed her finger at him as she mouthed to Lily 'very sizable' in reference to Frank. They both descended into fresh peals of laughter for a good few minutes leaving Frank sat where he was at a complete loss as to what was going on.

* * *

James sat in the kitchen of the Potter mansion and Sirius sat opposite him. The table was covered with any possible books they might require for their auror training programme. He had now bought _all_ the books on the recommended reading list that was given to him in his welcome pack, not just the seven he had on petty crimes. And this time he had bought two copies of each book for he wasn't selfish enough to only take what Lily said unto himself. He was going to drag Sirius along for the knowledge gaining ride, if only to spare Remus from having to watch one of them throw away the opportunity he had so desperately wanted for himself.

What James didn't know was that Remus couldn't bear to see the situation either way. No matter what, he was constantly reminded that he had not won a place in the auror training programme despite his good grades and clear dedication. When James and Sirius were at auror training in the week, Remus had to distract himself from thinking about the fact that he was not there with them. When James and Sirius were at home, (now studying for the auror training programme), once again, Remus had to distract himself and stay away from them, fearing his interest in the topic and becoming too engrossed with it to remind himself it was not his place to be learning about such things. If he were completely honest, though these thoughts rarely left his mind, his only moments of peace were when James and Sirius were messing around or slacking off as they had been constantly before Lily had turned James' view of the situation around. And although Remus couldn't really complain that James was finally getting his act together, Sirius too, and seizing the opportunity he had been given, he couldn't help but sometimes wish that Lily hadn't forced him to buck up his ideas in the brief conversation James had had with her. It was selfish of him because he knew that the path James had been heading down would have only landed him a one-way ticket out of the class. But if that had happened, at least he wouldn't be the only one with an unfulfilled dream.

So Remus usually just avoided them when they were doing work and it had gotten to the point where James and Sirius just accepted it. This was why Remus only came into the kitchen very rarely and only to grab a drink or something to eat when he was hungry or when it was offered. Another subject would have to be raised to force him to stay.

'What's that law?' Sirius asked James as he frowned at a piece of parchment in front of him.

'What law?' James asked. He was sat with his feet up on the table, a look of concentration on his face as he read through one of the books he'd bought: _Magical Creatures: Law and Regulation. _He turned the page as he said 'There are loads of bloody laws.'

'Yeah I know.' Sirius replied, plonking his elbows on the table and resting his face in his palms. His voice became muffled. 'But what's that major one?'

James sighed. 'I don't know Padfoot. Perhaps it's in that huge arse book of major laws over there.' He gestured lazily to one of the bigger books to the side of the table.

'Gnnaaahhh!' Sirius sounded, the word unfamiliar and, truth be told, not a word. He collapsed on the table resting his face on the parchment he had just been writing on. The ink was still wet but he didn't care. He was completely frustrated. He knew he had to study for this course. He did, truly. He just didn't want to. What he wanted, what he thought he had gotten by joining the auror training programme, was a chance to kick some death eater arse. To actually pick up a wand and do something instead of reading.

He too secretly hated the fact that James had gone to Lily and she had talked him round into seeing Williamson's point of view. Sirius had thought he and James were standing on a solidarity front, both determined to hate her throughout the duration of their time with her as a mentor. Of course, he did see why James was more susceptible to Lily's view seeing who she was to him. It was all a bit annoying really. And to Sirius, besides the book covered table and the grouchy mood James was in as he studied, he couldn't see and rise in knowledge. That was probably down to the fact Sirius hadn't seen James show of intelligence a couple days before hand in class as he had been so tired from a full moon excursion he had fallen asleep. No difference was being made by this venture in Sirius' opinion and he was fast getting bored with the experiment James had begun. He could see that James, even though bizarrely annoyed, hadn't been spiteful enough to leave him behind to fail. He had bought him all the books and dragged him along for the journey. But Sirius still hated the fact that he had to actually do the work. All thanks to Lily.

He made a mental note to give her a hard time about it next time he saw her even though he didn't know when that would be. He actually couldn't recall the last time he had seen her which, now that he thought about it, was rather weird considering he used to see her every day at Hogwarts, even when they had hated each other or weren't getting along when she first started going out with James. It was odd. It was nearly Halloween, only a couple weeks away and he couldn't remember seeing her since the last few days of summer when the trees were green. And if it was odd for him how must James feel considering his level of infatuation with the girl. Thinking of this, Sirius considered that perhaps he was being a bit insensitive about it all. Maybe James wasn't only just studying because Lily had said it would help. Maybe it was a way to distract himself from thinking about her too much. And maybe, Sirius just needed to help him with it. So he picked himself up from the table, faint smudges of ink on his face and blinked at the parchment. Only two of the twenty questions already written on it had been answered. He could do this. For James. Maybe.

Maybe not. He shook his head at the parchment and stood up, walking over to the French doors which lead out onto the Potter grounds. Upon opening them, he stuck his head out and called 'Moony!'

No reply.

'MOONY?' he yelled again, only more loudly and uncertain.

'He's in the library I think.' James said through a sigh, his concentration still fixed on his book.

'Ah ok.' Sirius said, starting to make his way to the door on the other side of the room which would take him into the ballroom, only four doors and five rooms away from the library. He paused before he exited the room and turned to James. 'I'm gonna ask him if he wants some pie.' he said.

'Good for you.' James replied, paying no particular attention.

'Ok.' Sirius nodded and then left the room and left James on his own.

As soon as he was sure Sirius was out of the room, James exhaled deeply and put down the book he had been reading. He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. They were aching from concentrating so hard. The language in the books he had to study for this course was confusing and repetitive. Especially as he had to read many of the sentences three, four times over just to make sense of them. Even then he didn't take it in. He couldn't stand it really. He knew why he was doing this, who it was for, his reasons behind it, all of that was clear to him. The eventual outcome however wasn't. What he was studying wouldn't be any use to him when facing a dark wizard. He had felt more prepared for the world, especially with the state it was in now, be_fore_ he had started the programme. What he was being taught, he felt, was just wasting valuable space in his brain that he could be using for other things. He was sure that if he ever had to face Voldemort and his followers, telling them that he could explain the difference between a petty misdemeanour and a serious crime which violated wizarding laws and had consequences of severe punishment wouldn't really help him. He doubted they would care. In fact, he knew they wouldn't care because, although things had seemed to have halted in the news on that front, he doubted that was truly the case.

The last major scandal that he could remember being reported by the Daily Prophet was the imperius curse being placed on the Minister's assistant. And that had actually happened whilst he was at Hogwarts. Nothing seemed to have been done about that though and so the majority of the wizarding world had come to the conclusion that Voldemort had just given up. But James had a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach. He didn't think he'd give up like that. No. He was biding his time. He had put something big in the works, that was why he had needed whatever information he had forced that boy to read. What that was, James was sure no one would know until it was too late. And it wasn't as if anyone would listen to an eighteen year old lad with a theory. Especially as the war hadn't actually touched him yet. He was safe at the minute. So, even though he was sure none of it would help him, James tried to study and just hope that something may come in handy one day.

Of course, he wouldn't be able to study any of it if he kept being interrupted. If it wasn't Sirius moaning, Remus hiding, his mother quickly popping in and telling him she was working again, (even on her days off), it was Peter writing, asking if he could come over and sneakily move a bit more of his stuff in. His mother had had to go to France to organise a distant cousin's funeral, the last of her blood line, so it was the only time he had to do so without her breaking down and crying that he would die without her. Of course, she hadn't done any of that yet because Peter had failed to tell her that he was moving out so far. He was a bit scared to do so but, moving out was the only option for him. And James knew how stifled Peter had been in that house and from seeing the difference his mother not being there had on him and the genuine excitement he had about moving away and into the Potter mansion, he had offered the boy the chance of freedom. And he had even offered himself up to tell Peter's mother the news on his behalf. So that was another distraction from studying he _had_ to take part in: moving someone new into the mansion.

Really, the only distraction James would welcome at this point was an actual sighting of Lily. He hated not seeing her. Absolutely hated it. He could actually feel himself seething with anger at the fact he couldn't see her or hold her or anything. It frustrated him to no end and he knew it was rubbing off on those around him. But he knew when he had started to chase her, before they had even started dating, that she loved to learn. It was her first love and if he ever thought he could or would be a higher priority than that than he was seriously mistaken. Truth be told he was quite jealous of St Mungos and the students in the healer training programme for stealing all her time and layering her with research and tests and papers and studying and, basically, education. If he could kill education at this point in time he would. He would slay it, take Lily in his arms and run away with her, never to be disturbed again by anyone. He would just spend his time loving her. But he knew she would never be happy again. And so, as the saying goes, if you love someone, you should let them go. And if they come back to you then they are yours to keep. He had no doubt he would see Lily again. He just didn't know when. But hopefully it would be soon as he was going stir crazy without her.

'James.' Mrs Potter's voice rang through the mansion. She obviously couldn't find him and, instead of running through the house searching for him, had used the _sonorus_ charm to alert him to the fact she wanted him.

James sighed, _again. _He picked up his wand and pointed it at his throat, muttered _sonorus, _shouted that he was in the kitchen, then reversed the charm with the counter-spell _quietus. _Within two seconds, his mother apparated into the kitchen, losing her balance momentarily when she appeared and having to hold onto the kitchen table to steady herself. She was dressed in her healer uniform, healer pin attached on the left breast panel and bag over her shoulder.

'I've been called into work.' she stated simply to James who glanced at her briefly before picking up the book he had been reading and continuing on from where he had left off.

'I thought it was your day off.' James said. 'We were gonna visit Dad's grave this afternoon.' he continued, secretly thinking, _Great! Another distraction. _

'Please get your feet off the table James.' Jane Potter said, not replying to James' statement at first, having to take a moment to compose herself before saying, 'He's not going anywhere. We can go Sunday.' It didn't work. Her voice still broke.

James didn't notice. 'I guess not.' he answered, 'You gonna be home for tea?'

'Not today I'm afraid.' she said as she rooted around in her workbag for something. She found it, an envelope, and pulled it out. 'This is for you to sign.' she said, putting it on one of the books strewn haphazardly across the table amidst parchments and inks.

'Thanks.' James said, not looking up and not noticing what it was. 'See you later.'

'Bye sweetie.' Jane said, walking round to him and kissing him on the top of his head, as mothers do, telling him once more to take his feet off of the table which he ignored again, before apparating out of the mansion to St Mungo's.

If James had thought he could do some work now he was wrong. Simultaneously, Remus and Sirius entered the room in search for pie, and an owl, flew in through the French doors which Sirius had left open, landing in front of him with a letter attached to its foot. She stuck out its leg for him to untie it. He closed his book and threw it to the end of the table where his mother had been standing. It landed with a dull thud on books and parchment.

'You got a letter?' Sirius asked, opening one of the cupboards and taking out three plates.

'No I've got a broomstick.' James replied sarcastically. 'Course it's a bloody letter.'

'Geeze!' Sirius gaped, 'No need to bite my head off. You want pie?'

'Yeah.' James answered as he unrolled the letter he had just taken off of the owls leg and began to read. It was from Lily. He smiled, a genuine smile, something he hadn't done in the past few days, but it soon faded. 'Oh crap!' he practically yelled, banging the table with his fist. The books on the table jumped a little. 'DAMMIT!'

'What's up?' Remus asked, walking over to him as Sirius served out the pie he had retrieved from the cool cupboard.

'She's got a new boyfriend.' James said, the look of concentration on his face not disappearing as he continued to read the letter.

'What?' Remus said, looking over his shoulder at the letter. He skimmed the first few sentences and saw what James was working himself up about. 'Okay she says 'I have a new _friend_ called Thomas on the healer programme. The one you stole the badge from.' _Friend. _Not _Boy_friend.' he laughed. 'Your eyesight is getting worse.'

'It's not funny.' James said, running a frustrated hand through his hair.

'Just trying to lighten the mood.' Remus muttered.

'You stole a badge from someone?' Sirius said as he brought over three plates of pie to the table. He motioned to James to clear the table who did so with a wave of his wand. All the books and parchments collected themselves together into piles in the middle of the kitchen tables whilst the quills and inks gathered in a clump in front of them. Sirius set down a plate in front of James and Remus, who had taken a seat next to James, before jumping up onto the table and sitting crossed legged next to the pile of books.

'Yeah to get through the 'staff only' door.' James replied offhandedly.

'That's my boy!' Sirius exclaimed, ruffling James' hair as if he was his father, 'No regards for the rules. That's the Prongs we all know and love. This studying Prongs is a nightmare. Know how long he's gonna be around for?'

'I'd give it a month.' Remus wagered.

'Ten?' Sirius asked.

'You think I'm made of money?' Remus laughed, 'Five. As high as I'll go.'

'Yeah alright.' Sirius grinned, 'Five knuts on a month of studying.'

'How could she get a new boyfriend?' James muttered to himself, frowning as he continued to study Lily's letter.

'Maybe cause choo gettin' awl moody an' geeky layely.' Sirius sputtered as he shoved a huge mouthful of pie into his mouth.

'It says friend.' Remus said, digging into his slice of pie. It was rhubarb.

Sirius swallowed hard. 'Don't mean he's not moody or geeky though does it.'

Remus raised an eyebrow at him and shook his head slowly. He then turned to James. 'What makes you think she has a new boyfriend anyway?'

'Aside from the fact she says so right here-'

'It says friend.' Remus sighed in interruption.

'-they went to Florean Fortescue's for ice-cream and to study yesterday.' he exclaimed as if it was horrific news. 'Listen to this.' he went on, clearing his throat and reading a portion of Lily's letter aloud. ''_We went to Florean Fortescue's to study but ended up just talking instead. He's so interesting. He's from Norway originally and went to Durmstrang which I find so fascinating! Imagine the differences in subjects alone! They offer dragon rearing as part of their Care of Magical Creatures lessons. He took it. His hands are rough from scars of burns. It's so interesting. We should've been talking about helpful fungi to boost the immune system but I just could turn away from this topic. I know! Me not doing work. It takes something really special for that to happen! Ha-ha! We talked for hours and then he paid for our ice-creams and took me home. Sorry I didn't write sooner but I missed out on some valuable study time thanks to that and didn't remember till now.' _That's a date.' James said. 'He took her on a date.'

'It doesn't say that.' Remus said. James was reading far too much into this.

'Read between the lines!' James almost snapped, 'It says, '_He paid for our ice-creams and took me home', 'His hands are rough'. _They talked for hours, she forgot to write to me cause he made her stop studying which is something I've never been able to do!'

'Yes you have and that doesn't mean anything!' Remus claimed. 'It wasn't a date!'

'Now hold on a minute there Moony.' Sirius said, waving his fork in the air thoughtfully, 'Prongs might have a point here.'

'Don't add to this insanity.' Remus warned, 'He's reading too much into this.'

'Well all I can do is read cause I never bloody see her anymore!' James muttered under his breath, slouching down in his seat and moodily spooning his pie into his mouth.

'Exactly.' Sirius pointed out, 'She could have moved on. And you have to admit what she described was a date. Prongs might as well be Alice.'

'What?' Remus questioned, confused on all counts.

'He doesn't see her. She gets lonely. She finds someone else, maybe doesn't even realise it at first, and goes out with them. Has the time of her life and then sends an enthusiastic letter to her best friend about it all. In this case, that's Prongs.' Sirius deduced, feeling quite proud of himself.

'Great!' James said. 'I'm Alice.'

'No you're not!' Remus tried to convince him. 'He's not!' he said sternly to Sirius, his eyes warning him to stop messing with James' mind which was already playing tricks on him and reading too much into things. He was paranoid.

'Moony.' Sirius started in a calm fashion. He clasped his hands together, abandoning his pie on top of the stack of books for this moment of clarity. 'What do you call it when two people go out to a restaurant together, alone, talk about themselves and each other for the entire duration of the outing, find out what each other's _hands _feel like, one person pays for the other and then escorts them home?' He raised his eyebrows at Remus.

'Ok it wasn't a restaurant it was Florean Fortescue's.' Remus corrected him.

'Pfft!' Sirius said, returning to his pie, 'Same difference!'

Remus sighed in slight defeat. 'It's not the same difference!' he said. But he could see where they were coming from. What Sirius had said, in its own weird way had made sense. Kind of. James and Lily hadn't seen each other in a while and in James' paranoid mind he had jumped to the conclusion that Sirius had explained. But Remus knew in his heart of hearts Lily wouldn't move on from James like that, if at all. She was just as devoted to him as he was to her. Remus had seen it. They were mad for each other and it was only because they hadn't spent time together properly in a while that the madness was coming out in different ways. And there was only one way to handle something like this in Remus' mind. Only one thing would stop James' paranoia and clear up his worrisome doubts.

'Why don't you just go see her and ask her. Talk to her about this?' Remus suggested.

'I guess.' James shrugged, stabbing his pie with his fork.

Sirius seemed to pause in thought. He hummed. James looked up. 'Or…' he said.

* * *

**Thanks for Reading!**

**Galindaba**


	13. Chapter 12

**Hey Everyone! :)**

**Here's the second chapter for the day! I hope you enjoy it. Or get feels from it. Either :)**

**Here we go! Chapter Twelve!**

* * *

**Chapter Twelve**

'Are you sure about this?' James asked Sirius. On the Friday of that week, just two days after James had received Lily's letter and he and Sirius had constructed a somewhat ridiculously immature plan, they both sat in the conference room where their auror training took place staring at a small group of girls. It was during their lunch break. 'I mean, maybe Moony had a point?'

'Course I am!' Sirius exclaimed, acting as if he was hurt by James' doubt. 'And remember, you only have twenty minutes until Alice and Frank come back and if they find out what you're doing then the whole knock on effect will be ruined. Assuming you're right about what she'll do after she gets your letter that is.'

'You saying I don't know my own girlfriend?' James questioned, folding his arms as he leaned against one of the desks he and Sirius were stood next to.

'A couple days ago you were sure she'd moved on.' Sirius reminded him, 'You sure she's your girlfriend?'

James paused and looked at Sirius with raised eyebrows. 'I miss Remus.'

'If Remus were here you'd be writing a peaceful letter to Lily and it'd be you running to her to talk about your feelings and the situation.' Sirius stated, 'With my plan she'll be running to you _and _admitting everything is all her fault.'

'I don't know if there's any fault per say-'

'Prongs!' Sirius cut him off, 'Have I taught you nothing?'

'Practically.' James replied seriously before shrugging and carrying on. 'Ok. Which one?' he asked, motioning towards the group of girls.

'Twelve o'clock.' Sirius said with a smirk, looking the girl directly in front of them up and down. She was tall with wavy golden hair. She had on a pair of flared powder blue jeans, heeled white leather boots and a flowered orange top. Her parents were obviously muggles, her clothes hand-me-downs from the flower-power era in the 1960's.

'Who's she?' James asked, looking after the girl in question.

'Jasmine Franks.' Sirius stated.

'Jasmine Franks.' James repeated nodding his head. 'Flower name. Nice touch.'

Sirius looked confused. 'Thanks.' he said anyway. If he was being given credit for someone then he was damn sure gonna take it. 'Right. You know what you're gonna say?'

'All I'm gonna do is see if she wants to hang out tomorrow evening.' James shrugged.

'Dude!' Sirius exclaimed, 'This is only the second girl you've ever asked out. One, that's actually very depressing news. Two, it's sad. And three, the first girl you asked out took seven years to say yes. Now I don't wanna pressure you,' he put his hand on James' shoulder, 'but we really don't have that amount of time.'

James sneered at Sirius. 'I'll be fine.' he said before straightening his shoulders, rolling up the sleeves on his shirt, shoving his hands into his pockets and sauntering over to Jasmine.

Sirius made a big dramatic sniff. 'My boy's all grown up.' he said just loud enough for James to hear, 'Pulling his first scam on a girl. I'm so proud.'

James turned back momentarily and swore with a gesture to Sirius. He really didn't need his sarcasm. Truth be told, he was very nervous about asking someone out, whether it was fake and a scam or not. He had only asked Lily out before and she had rejected him time and time again until their seventh year at Hogwarts. He had gotten used to rejection and had tried to harden his heart against it but, each time, it hurt him. Now he was asking this girl Jasmine out to aid a paranoid scheme, all on the premise that she would say yes first time. But why would she? He had shown no interest in her before and, until the past week, he had been a nuisance to the class and had halted her learning. It wasn't as if there was a palpable sexual tension between them either. There was nothing for them in the way of a relationship, no hints or suggestions. And why would there be? James was quite happy with Lily and all of this was just a wild plan to see her. But again, it all hinged on his ability to persuade this girl to go out with him.

When he reached the group of girls, they started to leave, probably not knowing he was there. However, he stopped Jasmine in her tracks by tapping her shoulder.

'Hi, err, Jasmine.' he said, shoving his hands in his pockets. This was nerve-racking.

'Hey.' she smiled in return, flipping her hair back over her shoulders.

'I was wondering if you'd would, err, like to, err, go for a drink with me tonight?' he stumbled, 'At the Leakey Cauldron.'

'Yeah okay.' Jasmine answered straight away, beaming at him.

James frowned. Was asking someone out really that easy? Lily really had given him the run around when they were younger. Or, perhaps, it was easier to attempt to date someone when they didn't hate your guts. Easier to get a yes when you weren't inflating the head of their best friend to three times its usual size.

'Really?' James asked her, a bit surprised. He turned to look at Sirius who stuck his thumbs up in support. 'That was easy.' he said in confusion.

Jasmine giggled. 'What you thought it would be hard?'

'Well…yeah.' James replied. Still, he shrugged. He shouldn't revel in his ability to actually ask a girl out successfully first time. It was meaningless really. 'Okay, then. Well I'll see you tonight then.'. He turned to walk away but turned straight back. 'Time would be good.' he stated.

Jasmine nodded her head in amusement.

'Eight okay?' he asked. And when she nodded again he said, 'I'll see you then then.'. Everything was set.

* * *

Thursday afternoon, Lily hammered on the door. She was furious. Or paranoid. Or furious at her paranoia or paranoid over her fury. She really couldn't tell. And so, she needed some advice. Some help to read between the lines as it were. She had just received a letter from James and after reading it once, twice, a third time, had become so confused on whether its contents were plain or hidden, she now needed a second pair of eyes on it. She couldn't ask her mum or dad because their view of James could well be altered in a bad way. Besides, her dad already hated him. She couldn't ask her sister, obviously. The marauders would probably disregard it as James being James, it was innocent which, admittedly it could be, but she highly doubted their answer would be any different even if they knew it wasn't. Hestia and Severus were off her list and she definitely didn't want to go directly to James in case she came off as a paranoid crazy girlfriend. So she went to Alice. She knew James, knew his ways but was distant enough from him to provide an outsiders perspective. Plus she had warned her about James possibly doing something stupid to retaliate against the distance between them when they had gone for tea two days ago. And so, she hoped, she would shed some light on the situation.

She banged on the door again. Waited a couple of minutes then knocked again. This time, the door opened and she marched inside, straight into the living room which the door opened in to.

'Sorry for coming over like this but I didn't know what else to do and after what you said at tea the other day I thought you might have an idea and-oh.'

She finally turned to face Alice who stood next to a rather sheepish Frank. They were both in dressing gowns despite it being early evening.

'Did I interrupt?' Lily asked awkwardly. She had forgotten. As it was their only day off where Alice's mum wasn't home, Alice and Frank usually spent the evening alone on Thursdays. And Lily didn't expect them to just sit indoors and play chess when they had free reign to do whatever they wanted. Alice's mum wasn't home. It was something they clearly took good advantage of.

'It's ok.' Alice smiled, her curly blond hair, (now cut short), a little frizzy. 'We were done.'

'Are you sure?' Lily asked, blushing slightly and avoiding eye contact with Frank as he was with her too.

'Yes. What's up?' she wondered, walking over to the sofa and leaning on the back of it. She was now near where Lily was standing. Only Lily began to back towards the door.

'Really.' she said uncomfortably, 'I don't want to ruin your evening.'

'Lily!' Alice laughed. 'Just tell me what's up?'

Lily weighed up her options. On one hand, she didn't want to be an intrusive friend and insist Alice put her needs before her own needs or happiness. She had just totally forgotten the day. Otherwise, she wouldn't have barged in here like this. But Alice was reassuring her that it was ok and that she did have a bit of time to listen to her paranoid dribble. And Lily really did want to help in decoding the letter or confirming it. Whichever it was. After all, it was Alice who had warned her something like this might happen if she and James went without seeing each other for too long. He would end up doing something big and stupid to get her attention. And now it seemed like he was doing just that. She sighed and handed it over to her.

Alice looked a bit confused but took the letter and opened it. Frank walked over and joined her, leaning on the back of the sofa too and reading over her shoulder.

_Dear Lily,_

_Nice to hear from you. It's been a while. Haha. I would invite you to dinner tonight but I just assume you're off studying. Probably with George. No, wait, Thomas. Rough hands from dragon burns? Ouch._

_Anyway, even if you could do dinner tonight, I can't because I'm going out with a girl called Jasmine from my auror class tonight. We're meeting at the Leakey Cauldron at eight. It should be fun, just me and her._

_Bye. James_

_P.S. Her name is a flower just like yours. Maybe I should get her some. Haha._

Alice finished reading first and passed the letter to Frank as he wasn't quite finished yet. She raised her eyebrows at Lily and folded her arms. 'Well I did-'

'Is there any need for an 'I told you so'?' she interrupted.

'Yes.' Alice laughed, 'Because I did tell you so.'

Lily gave Alice a derisive look. She was right. She had told her so. But the need to point it out was a little bit juvenile. But juvenile, from the contents of James' letter, seemed to be a bit of a theme. And so she let it slide and just said in exasperation. 'Fine you were right. Now please can you help me on what to do?'

Alice laughed again. 'Of course.' she smiled graciously. She was about to just say to Lily, from reading the contents of the letter, to basically just go and see James tonight and get the whole thing straightened out. Really, it was the only logical solution to her. But Frank, being a guy, noticed something in the letter that perhaps both Alice and Lily had overlooked.

'Who's Thomas?' he asked Lily, standing up straight now as he continued to study the letter in his hands.

'Why?' Lily asked, confused as to what this had to do with James' date.

'Just, who is he?' Frank pressed, 'And what does James Potter know about him?'

Lily folded her arms and looked around the room. The wallpaper was printed blue which offset the moss-green couch. Looking at the couch, it had seen better days. 'He's someone from my healer class. James stole his access badge off of him when he came to see me at St. Mungos about last week.'

Alice and Frank looked at each other and back to the letter. Alice then turned to Lily and said, 'That the last time you said you saw him right?'

Lily folded her arms. 'Yes.' she said succinctly.

'Okay.' Frank nodded his head in understanding. Alice, of course, had told him this. But she had also said that there was nothing to worry about after Frank had shown concern about the state of Lily and James' relationship. Clearly she was wrong. 'What does James Potter know about Thomas-'

'Ralston.' Lily inputted.

Frank just nodded his head and told her to continue.

'Well not much.' she said, unsure of the relevance this had to the situation at hand. She sighed and put one hand on her hip, jutting it out to the side in a casual stance. 'I've only ever mentioned him once in a letter I sent to him a couple days ago. I told him that…we went to Florean Fortescue's to study. That he was interesting because he was from Norway and went to Durmstrang.' she explained, reeling off the facts as if they meant hardly anything to her. When she received incredulous looks of off both Frank and Alice she added, somewhat defensively, 'What? It _is_ interesting.'

'And what's this about dragon burns?' Frank wondered, pointing to James' words in the letter.

Lily shrugged. 'He took dragon rearing as part of his Care of Magical Creatures lessons. His hands are rough from scars of burns. Why does it matter?' Lily asked, speaking quickly to get to her question as she was confused as to why Frank was focusing on the wrong part of the letter, in her opinion anyway. Didn't he get the fact that James was trying to bait her. He was going to go out with someone else. A someone else who had a flower name 'just like her'. That was annoying to Lily. Especially as he had joked about getting this girl flowers which was just a totally un-James thing to do. He didn't buy into the flower concept and it was something Lily had also disregarded. So why he would joke about getting someone flowers without the express intention to piss her off she didn't know. It was clearly some stupid and petty scheme of his.

'Well,' Frank sighed, 'it's just…you've not spent a lot of time together recently. I know he misses you.'

'Well I miss him too.' Lily stated, a little bit miffed that that fact seemed to be a little overlooked. Yes she didn't express it to everyone and she had told Alice the day before yesterday that she and James were fine and not to worry, but that didn't mean she didn't miss him. She had just had a lot of things to do and, whilst she was doing other things, her mind was concentrating on something else. But in those rare and brief moments where she had a second to breathe, she did miss him.

'Yeah I get that.' Frank said, 'But you seem to handle distance a bit better than he does. I mean, he keeps doodling your name in auror training and when I asked him if he was coming to tea with you he was kind of pissed to hear you had plans. So, knowing that, I think that hearing that you went out for a random chit-chat-'

'We were meant to be studying really.'

'-with another guy, has made him second-guess it all and be a bit paranoid.' Frank said, explaining to Lily what he thought James must be feeling. And he thought he'd got it spot on really, for not knowing him all that well. But sometimes, an outsiders perspective is more accurate than someone whose view is marred by knowledge. 'Basically, I think he thought you went on a date with this Thomas guy and he's jealous that you spent your free time with him.'

Alice began to nod her head in agreement. 'That makes sense.' she said, nodding her head. 'I told you that he would one of two things. One: do something stupid or ridiculous to get your attention or two: find someone else.'

'Well there's nothing like killing two birds with one stone!' Lily muttered sarcastically, looking at the ground and shuffling her feet slightly. 'That insufferable, arrogant twat!' she suddenly burst out in a fit of frustrated anger.

'Wow.' Alice blinked, 'Fifth year flashback.'

'Just who is Jasmine anyway?' Lily continued on, ignoring Alice's little comment.

Alice folded her arms and shrugged half-heartedly. 'Just a girl in our auror class. Nothing special really.'

'Special enough for him to ask out.' Lily muttered again.

'Lily!' Alice laughed, 'You know he's not really asked her out. Come on.'

'Well what am I supposed to think Alice?' Lily wondered, 'Yeah he's doing something stupid to get my attention and yeah, it's working. But the way he's going about it, going out with someone else, that says something else to me.'

Frank and Alice exchanged a confused look. For some odd reason, the conversation, the tone of it, had shifted. This was no longer about Lily being angry at James for acting out, frustrated that he was pulling a childish stunt to grab her attention and force a meeting between them, it was about Lily's fears. Fears that James might actually pull away from her and find someone else as Alice had told her at tea that he could do for he had offers. He was a brilliant lad: handsome, charming, funny, smart, patient and sweet. And Lily was worried that, thanks to them not seeing each other as much recently, something that was mostly her fault as she had had other things to do, somebody else had seen all these wonderful things in him. Someone else had offered themselves to him and he, bored of waiting around for her, had taken the opportunity to indulge himself. Frank and Alice, as two of Lily's closest friends, knew it was their duty to quell her fears, give her the correct advice and help her fix whatever the problem was.

'You know it means nothing right?' Frank said gently, 'I really don't think he'd go with anyone else. Not when he's wanted you from the beginning.'

'Franks right.' Alice agreed. 'I really don't think you need to read into him asking someone out. It's just his way of getting you worked up. To sort it all out you're just gonna have to go and see him tonight.'

Lily shook her head and looked up to the ceiling of Alice's living room. This was pathetic really. A little bit of distance and their relationship turns into shambles, James has to resort to a petty prank. It irritated her to no end. But in her hearts of hearts, she knew Alice and Frank was right. It didn't mean she wasn't pissed off with James though. And it didn't mean she still didn't have doubts as to why he had chosen to ask someone else out.

'Are you sure that this only has something to do with option number one?' Lily asked, referring to Alice's choices of what she though James might do if he and Lily didn't see each other before long. 'Because, believe me, I don't think that option two is too farfetched. There's no saying he's not bored of waiting for me to say I have a free period to see him and that he's found someone who does have the time for him.'

Frank exhaled heavily through his nose. 'I don't think he's found someone new.' he said, 'But don't you think that, if you're getting paranoid over this, that he may have just been feeling the same way when you told him about Thomas?'

Lily looked solemnly at Frank. He was right. And that meant something else. James had done this to prove a point.

* * *

James sat in a booth with Jasmine, both of them laughing and drinking Butterbeer. They were nestled into an alcove at the back of the Leakey Cauldron, James on the end of the booths seating, both of them chatting away about anything and everything. He had his arm around the back of the seat where she was sat but, despite how it could be perceived from the outside, it was completely platonic.

James couldn't do it you see. He had, earlier that day, been completely on board with Sirius' plan, willing to upset this girl and upset Lily just to prove a point and, hopefully, rectify the distance his relationship seemed to have at the minute. But as soon as Jasmine had turned up, and he had realised that Lily was going to come soon too, he couldn't do it anymore. So he politely explained to Jasmine, whilst apologising profusely for leading her on, that he did in fact have a girlfriend who was going to show up at any moment to tell him off for being a moronic arsehole and creating such an unnecessary spectacle just to prove a point. He had expected her to be disgusted at him, shocked, hurt and humiliated at the situation, but instead, she just asked why he felt he had needed to go to such dramatic lengths. So he explained it to her.

Before he told her the tale behind the incredibly juvenile ruse he and Sirius had concocted, he told her this: he had loved Lily for a long time, though at the start she couldn't stand him, and was certain that she was the one for him - his true soul mate. She was fiery and smart and beautiful and good in all the best possible ways and whilst she was not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, she was perfect for him. And that was all Jasmine needed to hear to be hooked on their story. Perhaps if James had started off by telling her that he had basically become a bit paranoid and jealous over a simple letter Lily had sent him then she wouldn't have agreed to stay and help him with his childish stunt. But as it was, James' natural way with words, his charm and ability to talk someone into anything with just a flash of his crooked smile and inviting hazel eyes, paved his was into convincing her.

So the two sat in a booth at the back of the Leakey Cauldron, both quite happy and both quite cosy. Jasmine sat in a sort of awe at James' handsomeness and personality, a little dismayed that this wasn't actually a date between them both and that he already had a girlfriend whom, by the sounds of things, he would marry one day. And James sat in a state of nervous excitement. He was a little bit worried about whether Lily would show up at all and what she would say to him when she got there. But he was also rather looking forwards to seeing her. Which emotion would win out if she arrived he didn't know until she stealthily appeared by their table.

'Okay.' Lily said, making her presence known to the pair who both looked up at her with wide eyes, a couple of deer caught in the headlights. 'I know what you're doing.' she continued, speaking only to James.

Excitement won out for James but he held in his smile at the fact that she had turned up at all and the fact that he was seeing her and simply said, 'Well good.' whilst taking a sip of his Butterbeer. 'I wasn't exactly being discreet.' he continued.

Lily folded her arms. She did not hold the joy that James had. The emotion that had won out for her, was her frustration at his need to do something so pathetically stupid to get her attention. She was rather pissed off with him if she was to be honest with herself. He was such a child sometimes. 'Can you stop then please?' she said to him, raising her eyebrows.

James smirked into his bottle. 'Stop what?' he asked.

'James!' Lily snapped, stamping her foot a little in annoyance. This was ridiculous. He dragged her all the way down her by way of a provocative letter just to prove a point and now he was playing games with her as if they were still in sixth year and hadn't admitted they liked each other. Typical James. And she really wasn't in the mood for typical James tonight. She had gone over it in her head and just wanted this mess to be sorted. No mess, no silliness. Just a mature adult conversation which she thought wouldn't be too difficult. If only James wasn't the other person in the situation.

'Lily!' James mimicked, just to annoy her further.

Lily took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself down. Her arms were still folded and she looked down at the faint hairs on them which she could barely see in this lighting. 'Can we talk about this please?' she queried smoothly, keeping a level voice. She glanced at Jasmine who seemed to be watching their interaction with fascination. 'Alone?' she added.

'Lily don't be rude.' James said, acting aghast. He placed his Butterbeer down on the table and allowed his arm, which was still around the back of the seat Jasmine was sat on, to relax a little and fall onto her shoulder as he added, 'I am entertaining.'

Lily stomped her foot in frustration again. 'Ugh!' she said, throwing her hands into the air, 'Fine! I'll just go then shall I?' She began to walk away. This was ridiculous. Alice and Frank had almost convinced her that this was nothing more than a rouse concocted by James to get her attention. That he wasn't interested in anyone else. But if they were here and had seen James' hand drop onto the girls shoulder they may have thought differently.

'No!' James panicked, standing up and grabbing her wrist. 'Come on.' his hand slipped into hers, their fingers naturally intertwining and he looked her in the eyes. Her fury was met with his pleading her to stay. 'I'm sorry.' he apologised, staring at her regretfully for a couple of moments. He then tore his eyes away from her, sighing as he did so, and turned back to the girl still sat in the booth.

'Thanks for this evening Jasmine.' he said with a sad smile, 'And I'm sorry. Again.'

'Don't worry about it.' Jasmine said, waving away his apology with a flap of her hand. 'I'll see you in training.' she went on to James before adding, 'Nice to meet you Lily.'

'Mmmm.' Lily grimaced with a brief and unenthusiastic nod of her head before James led her out of the pub and into Diagon Alley which was now pretty much deserted. She didn't question why the girl seemed un-phased by her arrival and then James' departure. If she did though, perhaps her paranoia that James was doing this for other reasons may have waned.

'So what?' Lily said, pulling her hand away from James' as soon as they were outside. She glanced around her and saw no one. 'She your new girlfriend?' she enquired sarcastically, folding her arms again and beginning to walk down the cobbled path. James followed.

With the hand she had just released, James messed up the back of his hair, his deep red checked shirt that he had worn for the occasion riding up as he stretched his arm to reach the back of his head. 'Do you wanna go somewhere?' he asked Lily,

Lily rounded on him, stopping a little ways down the path outside of a closed Twilfitt and Tattings. 'No.' she stated surely, 'I want an answer. Is she your new girlfriend?'

James sighed, wishing he hadn't listened to Sirius. 'You know she's not.' he said, informing her of what she already knew. He shook his head a tiny bit, looking sadly and longingly at Lily. 'I told her everything when she got here. About you and me and…why I'd asked her out.'

'Why do this?' Lily asked, completely befuddled. 'Why? Was it really all just to make a point because if it was then that's just _lousy_ James. It's messed up. I'm sorry you thought I went on a date when I didn't but instead of pulling this sort of crap then you should have just _told_ me! You should have _come_ to me and _said_-'

'When?' James cut her off suddenly. He swallowed and puffed out a quick breath of air. He dropped his voice, even though he knew not many people were wandering the streets at this time when all the shops were shut. But he hated discussing things which he still considered private out in the open. Nevertheless, he continued, just quieter. 'When Lily?' he wondered, 'I never see you anymore!'

Lily couldn't answer. She tucked her loose wavy hair behind her ears and looked to the ground. She knew he had a point there. And as much as she thought that the fact they weren't spending a lot of time together didn't excuse James from pulling his stupid childish antics, she knew he sincerely believed that, for this situation, it was the only way to get her attention. It had been explained to her by Frank.

James shoved his hands in his pockets and looked to the sky. It was mid-October now so, even at half past eight, the sky was dark. It wasn't filled with stars as he was used to seeing it, from Hogwarts or the mansion in Wales. The smog of London covered most of them. 'Can't see the stars.' he said. He couldn't think of anything else to say.

Lily said nothing in reply. She looked up at them too though, but only briefly before returning her gaze to the ground. She folded her arms again. The silence between them swelled. If it had gone on any longer, Lily would have probably started rambling. Or ranting. One of the two. However, as it was, James spoke to break the silence first.

'I'm sorry.' he said. 'I know I shouldn't have…I get why you're mad.' He took a step towards her and was going to continue but thought better of it. He stopped where he was and continued to speak. 'I shouldn't have gone about things the way I did. I shouldn't have been willing to upset you and upset Jasmine just to prove a point and, believe me, I feel bad about it. You have no idea how much I regret doing this, listening to Sirius and-'

'This was Sirius' idea?' Lily interrupted, finally looking up at James. She noticed he'd taken a step closer. Suddenly the distance between them seemed unbearable to her. She wanted to run over to him and give him a hug. She had missed him but it was only when she came face to face with that she let the emotion take over. Sure, in private moments she had felt it. But not like this. It was as if a dormant flame had been relit.

'He did have some input but…it's not his fault.' James said, not willing to pass the blame for this onto someone else even though it would be the easier option. It would have been a golden opportunity: pass all the blame onto Sirius, make-up with Lily and then they would be back on track, only having to talk about when they would meet up and how often it would be. But he didn't do that. He couldn't do that to his friend. So he took it.

'It's my fault and I…Look can we please go somewhere or walk or something? This is driving me mad!' He finally marched up to Lily but he didn't touch her. Instead, he just spoke very quietly to her. 'I don't like talking about these sorts of things out in the open where anyone can hear and you know that. And it's not like it's busy enough that noise is gonna hide our conversation. Please. Let's just…walk?'

Lily closed her eyes and breathed in his beech wood smell. Her stomach flipped and her heart rate began to start up. Her anger faded until it was like it wasn't there in the first place. And she just felt so empty. It was odd. They were so close and yet there was still this distance between them. She couldn't explain it. And if she couldn't explain it, how the hell was she supposed to rectify it? What an earth would get them over this rough patch they seemed to have found themselves in?

She silently nodded her head and allowed herself to be led by the elbow, back through the Leakey Cauldron and into muggle London where, even witches and wizards had to admit, there were more places to roam about.

When they got into the main streets of London where people were still bustling around and traffic was still zooming past, they said nothing. There was plenty of noise to hide the conversation James didn't want to have in public so it made him feel a little bit better about discussing a personal issue out in the open. If he had his way though, they'd go somewhere private. But relationships are full of compromises. So after walking for a little bit in silence, James with both his hands in his pockets and Lily with her arms folded, one looking at the unseen stars and the other at the ground, James finally found a bit of courage to break the ice for a third time that evening.

'I didn't mean to make you mad you know?' he told her.

After a few seconds, Lily spoke quietly. 'Was it really all just to make a point? To make me feel the way you felt? Because I genuinely thought we'd gotten past you not admitting your jealous or just your feelings in general.' Lily queried, kicking an empty bottle that was lying near one of London's filled up bins. They wouldn't be emptied until the following morning. 'It's all last year stuff.' she tacked on the end.

'I've never hidden my feelings about you.' James stated surely. 'You know I love you. I'd do anything for you. That's never been hidden from anyone. It's been fairly obvious from day one to be perfectly honest and-'

'I wasn't talking about that.' Lily replied, her stomach still getting that indescribable feeling it always did when he expressed how strong his love for her actually was. It did always scare her a little, to have someone spend that much emotion on just one person. Especially when it was just her. She was nothing special. Still, she put this all to one side and continued. 'You're always so open about the good stuff. Things that make you happy or make others happy. Just good stuff. It's _other_ things you don't show. You run away. Or you pull some big spectacle together to make a point!'

'No I don't.' James rejected.

'Yes you do!' Lily countered with a disbelieving laugh before reeling off several situations where he had done one of the things she had said. 'In the year we've been together alone: I go on a fake date with Joshua Hunt and you sink the whole of one of the fifth floor corridors, all because you were jealous. Linda died, you were distraught, you wouldn't admit it, and you hid. You lost the final Quidditch game, couldn't deal with it, and you _hid._ Everything that went on when you told me about Remus, you stopped speaking to me for a week and it wasn't until a little bit of happiness came along that you decided you would tell me how on earth I could possibly fix things. I have to guess what you're feeling if you're not happy or I have to talk you into telling me and most the time that doesn't even work! You just shut me out! Now with this, I don't know what amount of reasons you had but I know you have them and I want you to tell me!'

'Fine!' James finally snapped back throwing his hands in the air. He stopped and turned to face her, looking her in the eye and saying, 'I missed you ok? It's not a crime! I missed you and I got a bit paranoid and I did something stupid all right?!' he stopped. He was breathing heavily as he looked into her eyes, drawn into them as if gravity itself forced him. His voice lowered subconsciously and he looked at her with open honesty. 'I…I just want to see you more Lils.'

Lily shook her head slightly. 'Do you think I don't miss you?' she wondered disbelievingly, 'I do.' She looked away from his intense gaze as she went on. 'I've just had no time recently and I-'

'We have to make time.' James stated. No gimmicks. Just a straight fact. They had to make time for each other otherwise they would never see each other and their relationship would crumble into non-existence. Lily knew this was true too.

She nodded slowly. 'Okay.' she said.

* * *

On Saturday morning in mid-October, Lily sat on the arm of the sofa in her living room with a small overnight bag at her feet. She was waiting for James to come pick her up. After seeing him last night, they had had a very in depth talk about their relationship. They had both agreed they had had some road blocks, mostly because they weren't seeing each other and the intimacy they had developed had begun to lapse. So, to rectify this, James had suggested that they meet up the next day and go to dinner. Lily had added an overnight stay with him, maybe staying for more than one, perhaps the whole weekend. As soon as he got here they would go drop her bag of at his and then head out. He was taking his time though.

'Where is he then?' her dad asked her. He was sat on the sofa watching BBC news eating a bowl of Weetabix covered in sugar.

'He'll be here.' Lily said, 'Don't worry.'

'Like I'd worry about him.' Richard Evans mumbled under his breath.

Lily gave him a look. He didn't see it but the sentiment behind it she was sure he could feel in the atmosphere.

He was being moody. For the past few weeks he had been happy. Lily's relationship with her dad had returned to a state where she and he had small inside jokes, especially where Petunias husband Vernon was concerned. It had been like that for a good few weeks. Lily and Richard had been getting along tremendously well and it was great. However, Lily hadn't particularly thought why her dad was being so cheery but, as soon as she got back the previous night, she found out.

She hadn't been mentioning James' name recently and her dad had thought their relationship had come to an end. When she told him she was going to spend a few days with him at his because they hadn't spent much time together recently, Richard immediately donned his 'I hate James' face and gruffly said that it would be fine. It then dawned on her that her and James' recent distance, whilst horrible for them, causing paranoia and unwarranted jealousy in them both, had only ignited Richards hope that James was finally out of his little girls life. Now he realised it wasn't true, he was in a childish mood.

Lily looked at her watch and sighed. James was over half an hour late. It wasn't like him to be late, especially when it came to picking her up or coming to see her. In fact, he was usually early.

'You sure he's coming?' Richard asked, taking his last mouthful of Weetabix.

'Yes I'm sure Dad.' Lily said.

'But he's late?' Richard questioned.

'Yes he's late.' Lily replied, becoming steadily frustrated.

Just then there was a knock on the door. Lily smiled and got up immediately. She grabbed her bag and then walked out of the living room, into the hall and towards the door.

Richard went with her, carrying his empty bowl on his way to the kitchen but briefly stopping with her in the hallway to say goodbye. 'He better have a good excuse for being late.' he said, looking towards the door as Lily opened it.

When she did, she found it was not James who was stood there but Sirius. He looked tired. He had red bleary eyes and his perfect hair was in a very James style mess, only, it didn't suit him as it wasn't purposefully done. His smile was missing. He wore a frown instead. Lily knew something was wrong.

'Sirius?' she said tentatively, suddenly very worried. A weight dropped itself into the pit of her stomach.

Sirius gulped and looked at her, beaten. 'James' mum is dead.'

'That's a good excuse.' Richard breathed.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

**Review if you'd like! (Please?)**

**The next update will be on the 9th of July because I'm mean and want to leave you despairing for a few extra days :)**

**Thanks again**

**Galindaba**


End file.
